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Kniofht  Letter 

THE  LEWIS  CARROLL .  J^\SOCIETY  OF  NORTH  AMERICA      NUMBER  58  AUTUMN  1 998 


Ravings  from  the  Writing  Desk 
of  Joel  Birenbaum 

Can  a  Raven  have  a  "Swan  Song"?  I  prefer  it  to  the 
lament  of  the  late  Lory  or  the  demise  of  the  Dodo.  At  any  rate 
this  shall  be  my  final  raving  from  the  writing  desk.  I  have 
greatly  enjoyed  my  four  years  as  president,  but  it  is  time  to 
allow  someone  new  to  have  that  pleasure.  I  think  that  I  have 
had  the  benefit  of  the  centenary  to  help  keep  our  author  and 
our  organization  in  the  public  eye.  It  may  take  a  bit  more  work 
to  maintain  the  heightened  awareness  over  the  next  four 
years.  I  ask  you  to  pledge  with  me  to  support  the  president 
who  shall  be  elected  in  November.  I  would  mention  her  by 
name,  Stephanie  Stoffel,  but  I  would  not  want  to  presume. 

The  most  heartening  thing  I  have  learned  in  my  ten- 
ure is  that  the  works  of  Carroll  are  still  loved  by  school  chil- 
dren. I  have  heard  this  directly  from  children  on  the  Internet. 
I  cannot  say  how  representative  this  sample  is,  but  it  lifts  my 
spirits  nonetheless.  Certainly  we  in  the  LCSNA  believe  that 
Carroll's  works  are  timeless,  but  it  is  up  to  each  generation  to 
prove  whether  or  not  we  are  justified  in  this  belief.  We  have 
been  accused  more  than  once  of  being  closed-minded  and 
overly  protective  of  Carroll's  reputation.  I  think  the  only  an- 
swer necessary  is  to  remain  open  to  new  ideas  and  continue 
to  reject  those  that  are  without  merit.  I  think  Lewis  Carroll's 
reputation  can  stand  on  its  own,  but  every  now  and  then  it  is 
necessary  to  bring  the  facts  to  the  fore  when  Carroll  is  at- 
tacked with  innuendo  by  self-serving  journalists. 

I  hope  that  many  of  you  will  be  able  to  join  us  No- 
vember 7th  and  8th  at  UCLA  and  the  Huntington  Library  for 
our  Fall  meeting.  The  program  is  eclectic  as  always  and  has  a 
California  flavor  to  it  [details  on  p. 20].  The  Maxine  Schaefer 
Memorial  Reading  for  children  will  be  held  at  the  L.  A.  Public 
Library  at  10:00  a.m.  on  the  7l  .  It  is  important  that  we  con- 
tinue to  support  this  outreach  effort.  It  pleases  me  greatly  to 
know  that  we  are  continuing  in  the  path  of  those  who  have 
come  before  us.  We  have  lost  several  members  to  death  in 


the  past  four  years,  the  latest  being  Carol  Droessler  [see  p.  17]. 
The  losses  sadden  me,  but  I  would  never  have  been  able  to 
count  them  among  my  friends  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  LCSNA. 
They  have  left  me  better  for  the  experience. 

As  the  White  Knight,  I  ride  off  into  the  sunset  look- 
ing back  for  a  bit  of  comfort.  I  see  all  those  who  have  helped 
me  lead  the  LCSNA  over  the  past  four  years  waving  franti- 
cally. I  thank  my  fellow  elected  board  members,  Fran  Abeles, 
Genevieve  Smith,  Kay  Rossman,  Rosella  Howe,  Ellie 
Luchinsky,  Stephanie  Stoffel,  and  Donald  Rackin  for  perform- 
ing their  jobs  in  such  a  way  that  I  never  had  to  worry  about 
them.  This  may  not  sound  like  much,  but,  believe  me,  this  is 
high  praise,  indeed.  There  are  many  non-elected  officials  who 
have  served  us  well  including  Charles  Lovett,  August  Imholtz, 
Janet  Jurist,  and  Bea  Sidaway.  I  must  single  out  the  magnifi- 
cent job  done  by  Mark  Burstein,  the  editor  of  the  Knight 
Letter.  For  one  thing,  if  I  didn't  he  would  just  edit  it  in  any- 
way. [Who?  moi?  -  ed.]  Previous  presidents  have  been  made 
of  iron  and  have  edited  the  KL  during  their  reign,  but  I  do  not 
have  such  a  strong  constitution  and  appreciate  Mark's  edi- 
torial abilities  that  have  enhanced  the  style  and  content  of 
the  KL.  Without  the  efforts  of  these  people  the  life  of  this 
LCSNA  president  would  have  been  unbearable.  Clearly,  there 
were  many  others  who  contributed  to  our  success  and  the 
only  reason  I  don't  mention  them  is  to  increase  the  number 
of  letters  and  phone  calls  I  get.  My  thanks  to  all. 

I  eagerly  look  forward  to  the  25  anniversary  of  the 
LCSNA  in  1999.  We  have  accomplished  much  and  have  much 
yet  to  accomplish.  I  hope  that  you,  as  I,  look  on  the  LCSNA 
with  a  feeling  of  great  pride. 

7,  for  one,  am  quite  proud  to  have  worked  with  you,  Joel, 
and  thank  you  on  behalf  of  many  for  your  truly  inspiring 
leadership.  I  think  among  other  achievements,  your  cre- 
ation and  maintenance  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  and  LCSNA 
websites  should  be  singled  out.  An d  unlike  the  White  Knight, 
we  can  look  forward  to  seeing  you  at  many  future  meetings! 


"What  a  funny  watch!"  she  remarked.  "It  tells   the  day  of  the  month,  and  doesn't  tell  what  o'clock  it  is!" 

"Why  should  it?"  muttered  the  Hatter.  "Does  your  watch  tell  you  what  year  it  is?" 

"Of  course  not,"  Alice  replied  very  readily:  "but  that's  because  it  stays  the  same  year  for  such  a  long  time  together." 

"Which  is  just  the  case  with  mine,"  said  the  Hatter. 


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O  albo  dies  notanda  lapillo 

The  death  centenary  of  C.L.Dodgson  produced  a  cornuco- 
pia of  conferences  from  California  to  Moscow. . . 

Charles  D.  &  Charles  D. 

by  Janet  Jurist 

"Charles  Dickens  and  Lewis  Carroll:  Multicultural 
Worlds  of  Fiction",  an  interdisciplinary  conference  organized 
by  Edward  Guiliano  et  al.,  was  held  at  Queens  College  in 
New  York  City  on  April  23  .  Considering  the  subjects,  it  was 
inevitable  that  the  conference  be  most  interesting. 

The  theme  of  the  morning  program  was  the  remark- 
able differences  yet  striking 
similarities  of  these  two  endur- 
Nina 


ing  literary  giants" 
Demurova  ,  the  first  major 
speaker,  was  introduced  by 
none  other  than  Yevgeny 
Yevtushenko  .  Nina  told  of 
how  she  had  read  Dickens  as 
a  child,  but  was  introduced  to 
Carroll  only  as  a  university 
student.  She  mentioned  her 
father's  theory  that  certain 
authors  were  good  for  summer 
reading,  Dickens  for  example. 
Others,  like  Tolstoy,  were  suit- 
able only  for  the  grim  Russian 
winters.  Nina  felt  that  in  Carroll 
there  were  many  echoes  of 
Dickens  and  she  gave  several 
examples.  Whether  con- 
sciously or  subconsciously, 
Carroll  definitely  borrowed 
from  his  fellow-countryman. 
Both  had  a  feeling  for  non- 
sense and  the  grotesque;  both 
borrowed  from  folk  tales  and 
myths  and  both  espoused  the 
cult  of  the  child.  Above  all, 
both  wrote  with  great  humor. 
While  Dickens  was  very  much 
the  realist  and  Carroll  meta- 
phoric,  in  their  writings,  each 
looked  at  the  world  through 
someone  else's  eyes. 

A  panel  discussion, 
"The  Continuing  Appeal  of 
Dickens  and  Carroll",  fol- 
lowed. Participants  were  Karen 
P.  Smith  ,  Dickens  biographer 
Fred  Kaplan    and  our  own 

Donald  Rackin  .  It  was  agreed  by  all  three  panelists  that 
Dickens  and  Carroll  survived  to  this  day  not  only  in  their 
native  England  but  all  over  the  world  because  of  their  inspi- 
rational wit.  Both  are  timeless,  straddling  the  old  and  the 
new.  In  some  ways,  their  works  may  be  more  pertinent  today 


than  they  were  in  their  own  times. 

After  a  break  for  lunch,  we  returned  to  hear  Thea 

8 

Musgrave  ,  as  she  discussed  the  process  she  used  to  com- 
pose an  opera  based  on  Dickens'  A  Christmas  Carol.  One  of 
the  difficulties  was  deciding  which  episodes  to  include.  The 
music  and  the  scenes  she  played  gave  us  a  taste  for  more. 

A  most  enjoyable  finale  was  the  viewing  of  some  of 
Dave  Schaefer's  collection  of  early  Alice  films,  along  with 
his  elucidating  commentary.  The  1903  Hepworth,  1910  Edison, 
a  1930  Joan  Bennett  dance  sequence  and  the  1933  newsreel 
of  Alice  Hargreaves  in  the  U.S.  were  all  great.  However,  the 
one  we  all  enjoyed  most  was  the  1930's  Betty  Bdop"cartoon 

"Betty  in  Blunderland". 
All  in  all  ,  it 
was  a  very  enlightening 
and  entertaining  day. 


They  were  remarkably  different;  they  were  surprisingly 
similar.  On  the  one  hand,  a  self-educated  public  figure,  a 
celebrity  who  was  famous  as  a  novelist,  a  periodical  editor, 
an  after-dinner  speaker,  a  skilled  amateur  actor  and  stage 
manager,  and  a  dazzlingly  effective  performer  in  readings 
of  his  own  fiction;  a  traveler  who  spent  long  periods  of 
time  on  the  Continent  and  in  North  America;  a  husband  at 
twenty-four,  the  father  of  ten  children,  an  apostle  of  family 
harmony  who  later  separated  from  his  wife  after  twenty- 
two  years  of  marriage;  a  writer  whose  death  was  mourned 
all  over  the  world.  In  contrast,  a  graduate  of  the  distin- 
guished Rugby  School  and  of  Christ  Church  at  Oxford 
University,  a  shy  lecturer  and  tutor  in  mathematics,  an 
ordained  Anglican  deacon  whose  stammer  made  him 
reluctant  to  give  sermons,  a  man  who  traveled  from 
England  only  once,  a  lifelong  bachelor  who  evidently 
remained  celibate,  a  person  who  shunned  publicity. 

But  the  parallels  are  fascinating.  Each  man  was  the  oldest 
son  in  a  large  family,  Dickens  having  seven  sisters  and 
brothers,  Carroll  having  ten  siblings.  Each  as  a  boy  pro- 
duced household  theatrical  events;  each  as  an  adult 
displayed  a  playful,  extremely  engaging  manner  in  speak- 
ing with  young  children.  Each  enjoyed  lengthy  walks,  often 
of  twenty  miles  or  more;  each  became  an  especially 
devoted  theatergoer;  each  was  a  prolific  letter-writer;  each 
considered  himself  a  devout  Christian  but  disliked  sectar- 
ian divisiveness;  each  bitterly  resented  gossip  accusing  him 
of  sexual  impropriety;  and,  most  important,  each  wrote 
narrative  noteworthy  for  humor,  satire,  parody,  memo- 
rable dialog,  and  great  sensitivity  to  the  plight  of  young 
children  facing  frightening  authority  figures,  stories  that 
appeared  with  striking  illustrations  for  which  the  author 
himself  had  given  specific  instructions... 

~  Stanley  Friedman,  Queens  College 
from  the  conference  brochure 


former  LCSNA  President, 
currently  Vice  President  for 
Academic  Affairs,  New 
York  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy 

see  box  at  left 

University  of  the  Russian 
Academy  of  Education, 
Moscow,  author  of  many 
scholarly  books  and  trans- 
lations of  Carroll  material 

Russian  lyric  poet  and 
novelist,  currently  Distin- 
guished Professor  at  Queens 
College 

Professor,  Queens  College 

Distinguished  Professor, 
Queens  College 

Temple  University,  au- 
thor of  AW  &  TTLG:  Non- 
sense, Sense,  and  Meaning 
(1991)  and  numerous  ar- 
ticles 

Scottish  composer  known 
for  her  historical  operas, 
such  as  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots  (1977),  and  Simon 
Bolivar  (1995),  currently 
Distinguished  Professor  at 
Queens  College 

9  former  LCSNA  President, 
currently  at  George  Mason 
University 


"On  the  27  inst.  at  the  Parsonage,  Daresbury, 
Cheshire,  the  lady  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Dodgson,  of  a 
son."      ~  The  Times  of  London,  31  January,  1832 


Lewis  Carroll  at  Mythcon 

August  A.  Imholtz,  Jr. 

The  29th  conference  of  the  Mythopoeic  Society  was 
held  at  Wheaton  College  in  Wheaton,  Illinois,  a  distant  sub- 
urb of  Chicago,  from  July  1 5-20, 1998.  In  addition  to  being  the 
home  of  the  Billy  Graham  Archives,  the  college  possesses  a 
large  amount  of  C.S.Lewis  material,  purportedly  including 
his  famous  "wardrobe."  The  centenary  of  the  birth  of  C(live) 
S(taples)  Lewis  was  the  major  theme  of  the  conference, 
though  July  16  was  devoted  to  Lewis  Carroll.  John  Docherty 
of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  (U.K.)  participated  in  a  lively 
morning  panel  on  "Alice  in  Narnia:  Lewis  Carroll  and 
C.S.Lewis."  The  afternoon's  events  began  with  Docherty's 
interesting  exploration  of  the  similarities  between  the  literary 
and  artistic  circle  of  Lewis  Carroll  and  the  literary  group  called 
the  "Inklings"  which  included  C.S.Lewis,  Owen  Barfield, 
J.R.R. Tolkien  and  others  at  Oxford  a  generation  after  Carroll's 
death.  Joel  Birenbaum  introduced  the  first  of  the  two  after- 
noon panels,  "(Most  of  Carroll's  Sources)  Are  Greek  to  Me" 
by  noting  that  the  main  reason  for  discussing  Carroll  in  a 
Lewis  conference  is  not  the  coincidence  of  their  shared  cen- 
tenary, the  one  of  death  and  the  other  of  birth,  nor  the  fact 
that  they  were  both  Oxford  dons,  but  rather  because  of  their 
love  of  language  and  wordplay  as  exemplified  in  their 
fantastical  works. 

August  Imholtz  read  an  obscure  paper,  "Plato  in 
Wonderland:  or,  Beautiful  Soup  and  Other  Philosophical 
Ideas"  in  which  he  cited  some  similarities  between  passages 
in  the  Alice  books  and,  of  all  things,  the  Platonic  dialogue 
"Hippias  Major".  Fernando  Soto,  continuing  the  Greek  theme 
in  his  paper  "Alice  as  Flower  and  Carroll  as  Botanist",  inves- 
tigated the  etymological  meaning  and  botanical  symbolism 
behind  some  key  common  nouns,  illustrations,  and  names  in 
the  Alice  books,  including  Alice  herself. 

The  final  panel,  "Fragments  of  a  Looking-Glass", 
was  chaired  by  Fernando  Soto.  David  L.  Neuhouser  briefly 
and  amusingly  discussed  "Lewis  Carroll:  Author,  Mathema- 
tician, and  Christian"  focusing  on  the  Sylvie  and  Bruno 
books.  Arden  Smith's  paper,  "Tortoise?  What  Tortoise?  Al- 
tered Images  in  Alice  Translations",  compared  the  German 
translations  of  the  tortoise  passage  in  the  versions  of  Antoine 
Zimmerman  (Leipzig,  1 869)  and  Lieslotte  Remane  (East  Ber- 
lin, 1968).  In  the  second  half  of  his  paper,  Mr.  Smith  trans- 
lated the  names  of  many  of  the  characters  in  the  Alice  books 
into  Pitjantjatjara  and  then  retranslated  the  Pitjantjatjara  back 
into  English  with  some  amusing  results.  In  addition,  he  taught 
us  how  to  pronounce  "Pitjantjatjara".  Clive  and  Charles  would 
have  been  amused.* 


*  Alitji  in  the  Dreamtime  was  first  translated  into  Pitjantjatjara  (an 
aboriginal  language  of  Australia)  by  Nancy  Sheppard,  published  with 
illustrations  by  Byron  Sewell,  in  1975;  Alitji  in  Dreamland,  also  trans- 
lated by  Sheppard,  and  illustrated  by  Donna  Leslie,  was  published  in 
1992. 


The  International  Lewis  Carroll  Conference  in  Moscow 

August  A.  Imholtz,  Jr. 

In  February  of  this  year,  I  was  invited  to  read  a  pa- 
per at  the  International  Lewis  Carroll  Conference  being 
planned  at  the  State  Library  for  Foreign  Literature  in  Mos- 
cow. The  occasion  for  the  conference  was  the  centenary  of 
the  death  of  Lewis  Carroll  and  so  the  Russian  Carroll  enthu- 
siasts in  Moscow,  chiefly  Ms.  Olga  Valentinova  Sinitsyna, 
head  of  the  Art  and  Children's  Literature  departments,  de- 
cided to  organize  the  program,  the  first  such  Carroll  confer- 
ence ever  to  take  place  in  the  capital  of  the  former  Soviet 
Union. 

During  the  Communist  period  such  a  gathering 
would  have  been  almost  impossible  to  realize,  not  because 
Lewis  Carroll  was  a  proscribed  author,  but  rather  because  he 
would  not  have  been  deemed  sufficiently  serious  to  merit 
Soviet  consideration.  In  spite  of  that  fact,  the  Alice  books 
had  long  been  very  popular  in  the  Soviet  Union,  with  more 
than  a  half-dozen  different  translations  having  been  pub- 
lished. Even  some  of  Carroll's  mathematics,  logic,  and  more 
specialized  minor  pamphlet  works  were  translated  into  Rus- 
sian during  the  1970s  and  1980s.  Martin  Gardner's  The  Anno- 
tated Alice  achieved  the  status  of  an  underground  classic 
among  university  students  in  those  decades. 

In  observation  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  centenary,  the 
British  Council  sponsored  a  small  but  well-done  traveling 
Carroll  exhibition,  "The  World  of  Lewis  Carroll",  which  the 
Library  for  Foreign  Literature  was  able  to  secure  from  the  end 
of  March  through  the  middle  of  May.  In  addition  to  the  post- 
ers, photographs,  and  other  materials  she  received  from  the 
British  Council,  Olga  Sinitsyna  persuaded  Margarita 
Feodorovna  Roushaylo,  the  widow  of  the  greatest  Russian 
Carroll  collector,  Alexander  Mikailovitch  Roushaylo,  to  lend 
over  one  hundred  works  from  her  late  husband's  collection. 
The  Library  then,  with  the  help  of  the  British  Council  and  the 
Roushaylo  family,  was  able  to  mount  a  splendid  collection  of 
Carroll  publications  and  translations,  with  some  original  art- 
work in  the  exhibit  cases  of  the  Art  Department  reading  room. 

The  library  itself  was  founded  by  Ms.  I.M. 
Rudomino,  an  independent  scholar  and  thinker  at  a  time  when 
such  traits  could  prove  quite  dangerous  in  the  Soviet  Union. 
Originally  housed  in  a  building  by  the  old  Lomonosov  uni- 
versity, the  library  now  occupies  a  modern,  well-lit  facility 
directly  opposite  from  one  of  Moscow's  seven  "Stalin  sky- 
scrapers". The  Rudomino  Library  contains  almost  four  mil- 
lion volumes  in  the  humanities  and  social  sciences. 

We  received  our  official  invitations  from  the  Library, 
the  Ministry  of  Culture,  and  the  Foreign  Ministry  in  March, 
and  duly  submitted  our  documents  to  the  Russian  consular 
office  in  Washington  on  April  1 .  Although  the  exhibition  had 
opened  at  the  end  of  March  with  a  Mad  Tea  Party  for  over  a 
hundred  guests,  the  conference  papers  were  not  scheduled 
until  April  26.  We  thought  we  had  plenty  of  time  to  obtain 
our  visas.  Here,  however,  a  few  facts  need  to  be  kept  in  mind 
in  order  perhaps  to  grasp  what  followed. 

A  few  months  prior  to  submitting  our  visa  applica- 
tions and  documentation  for  my  wife,  Clare,  and  myself,  I  had 


been  a  guest  at  the  Russian  Embassy  on  the  occasion  of  the 
commemoration  of  the  Soviets'  heroic  victory  at  Stalingrad 
in  World  War  II.  I  had  played  a  very  small  role  in  the  program 
by  providing  the  director  of  the  program  of  poetry-readings 
and  battle  newsreels  (supplemented  by  the  at  times  lengthy 
recollections  of  medal-bedecked  veterans)  with  the  text  of 
the  congratulatory  telegrams  President  Roosevelt  sent  to 
Josef  Stalin  after  the  German  surrender  at  Stalingrad  in  Janu- 
ary of  1943.  Thus  I  was  not  a  complete  stranger  at  the  em- 
bassy. 

Furthermore,  during  the  past  year  I  corresponded 
with  Yuri  N.  Baturin,  when  he  was  serving  as  director  of  the 
Russian  National  Security  Council  in  Yeltsin's  cabinet. 
Baturin  translated  Carroll  in  his  spare  time,  perhaps  as  a  com- 
mentary on  Russian  politics,  and  he  had  sent  me  a  copy  of 
his  published  translation  of  Carroll's  pamphlet  "The  Dynam- 
ics of  a  Parti-cle".  In  the  middle  of  our  correspondence,  in 
June  1997,  Baturin,  whose  reform  measures  had  infuriated 
leaders  in  the  Russian  army,  was  suddenly  fired  by  Boris 
Yeltsin.  The  last  thing  to  be  borne  in  mind  is  the  title  of  the 
talk  I  planned  to  give  at  the  conference:  "Lewis  Carroll  and 
Political  Correctness". 

The  conference,  as  I  said,  was  scheduled  for  April 
26,  1998.  Originally  Ms.  Sinitsyna  and  the  other  organizers 
had  planned  to  open  the  exhibition  with  the  conference,  but 
one  of  the  main  Russian  speakers,  the  brilliant  Russian  trans- 
lator of  Lewis  Carroll,  Nina  Mikailovna  Demurova,  had  to  be 
in  New  York  at  the  end  of  March  to  deliver  the  first  Stan  Marx 
Memorial  Lecture  at  New  York  University.  So  while  Professor 
Demurova  was  here  lecturing  in  the  United  States,  we  sub- 
mitted all  of  our  documents  to  the  Russian  consulate  and 
waited.  And  we  waited.  And  we  waited.  As  our  departure 
date  approached  and  we  were  still  without  our  visas,  we  went 
down  to  the  consulate,  fronting  on  little  Tunlaw  Street  ("wal- 
nut" backwards),  to  make  personal  inquiries.  We  were  told 
our  visas  would  not  be  ready  until  May  9.  Complaints  were 
fruitless.  Pleading  was  in  vain.  We  sent  a  flurry  of  e-mail 
messages  to  our  host  in  Moscow,  who  then  faxed,  e-mailed, 
and  even  phoned  the  Russian  Embassy  in  Washington.  Ms. 
Sinitsyna  and  the  officials  of  the  library  were  told  that  our 
application  was  "suspicious"  and  a  second  confirmation  in 
writing  would  be  required  of  the  Library  and  the  Foreign 
Ministry.  Even  the  day  before  the  conference  was  to  take 
place  in  Moscow  with  speakers  from  the  United  Kingdom 
and  Russia,  we  went  one  last  time  to  the  embassy,  having 
quickly  packed  our  suitcases  in  the  hope  of  getting  the  visas 
at  the  last  minute,  flying  up  to  Kennedy,  and  from  Kennedy 
getting  a  flight  to  Moscow.  The  grim  visa  clerk  said  "No,  it  is 
impossible." 

At  that  point  we  realized  we  were  not  going  to  be 
able  to  get  to  Moscow  in  time  for  the  conference  and  were  so 
dispirited  that  we  gave  up  all  thought  of  going  to  Russia. 
And  then  we  spoke  to  Professor  Demurova,  who  was  just 
about  ready  to  return  to  Moscow  from  her  stay  in  the  U.S., 
and  she  persuaded  us  to  come  to  Moscow  anyway.  Although 
we  missed  the  conference,  Ms.  Sinitsyna  arranged  for  me 
and  Professor  July  Danilov,  who  was  unable  to  be  present  at 


the  Library  on  April  26  due  to  schedule  conflicts,  to  deliver 
our  papers  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  English  Speaking 
Union  of  Moscow. 

After  the  long  flight  from  Washington  to  Frankfurt 
and  from  Frankfurt  to  Moscow,  we  arrived  without  our  bag- 
gage at  Sheremetyev  Airport  on  May  13  in  the  midst  of  a 
drenching  rain  —  it  was  delayed  in  Frankfurt.  Professor 
Demurova  and  her  brother,  the  film  director  Mikail 
Mikailovitch  Demurov,  met  us  at  the  airport.  The  journey 
from  Sheremetyev  into  Moscow  took  almost  as  long  as  the 
flight  from  Frankfurt  to  Moscow.  In  addition  to  the  complica- 
tions caused  by  the  rain,  traffic  was  snarled  to  a  standstill 
because  of  a  bomb  threat  at  one  of  the  Moscow  railway  sta- 
tions. I  learned  the  Russian  word  for  "traffic  jam",  what  we 
call  a  bottleneck:  probka,  literally  the  cork  in  a  bottle. 

We  finally  arrived  at  the  little  private  hotel  on 
Sadovichnesnaya  used  by  the  guests  of  the  Library  and  the 
Russian  Nuclear  Research  Commission,  where  we  were  ever 
so  warmly  welcomed  by  our  host,  Ms.  Synitsyna.  Our  first 
full  day  in  Moscow  was  devoted  to  sightseeing  and  a  splen- 
did private  tour  of  the  Tretyakov  Gallery.  No  probka  any- 
where. On  the  next  day  about  sixty  people  assembled  in  the 
grand  Oval  Gallery  of  the  Library  for  Foreign  Literature  for 
the  English-Speaking  Union  meeting.  The  "Oval  Gallery"  was 
of  course  a  perfect  square  whose  high  bookcases  along  the 
walls  reached  to  the  ceiling  and  were  filled  with  rare  1 7th- 
1 8th  century  books.  Following  welcoming  introductory  re- 
marks by  the  Director  of  the  Library  and  a  brief  business 
meeting,  Professor  Nina  Demurova  introduced  me. 

I  gave  a  brief  address  in  Russian  summarizing  the 
main  points  of  my  paper,  "Lewis  Carroll  and  Political  Correct- 
ness", and  then  read  the  text  in  English  at  a  pace  just  below 
normal.  Each  member  of  the  audience  had  been  provided 
with  a  Russian  translation  of  the  text  of  my  lecture.  Professor 
Yuli  Danilov  (or  "July"  as  his  name  was  playfully  listed  in  the 
program,  so  "July"  followed  August),  a  very  distinguished 
Russian  mathematician  and  physicist,  spoke  next.  He  offered 
some  introductory  remarks  in  English  and  then  delivered  his 
talk  on  Lewis  Carroll  in  Russian.  Surprisingly  there  were  no 
questions  at  the  end  of  the  formal  session,  but  at  the  recep- 
tion afterwards  many  people  had  questions  for  Professor 
Danilov  and  me.  And  so  in  spite  of  the  distressing  obstacles 
at  the  beginning  of  our  trip,  we  thoroughly  enjoyed  our  "Rus- 
sian Journey". 

[There  was  also  a  simultaneous  exhibition  at  the  same  Li- 
brary of  "  P  re- Rafael  it  e  Photography,  Art,  and  Poetry" 
which  featured  six  ofDodgson  's  photographs.] 


Down  the  passage  which  we  did  not  take 
Towards  the  door  we  never  opened 
Into  the  rose-garden 

T.S.Eliot 
Burnt  Norton  1.12-14 


The  Lewis  Carroll  Centenary  Programme 

Christ  Church,  Oxford,  16-22  August,  1998 

Sponsored  by  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  (U.K.)  and  the 

University  of  Oxford  Department  for  Continuing  Education 

"The  conference  was  a  remarkable  team  effort "  —jh,  and  in 
this  spirit  the  following  article  was  assembled  from  reports 
from  Jeanne  &  Dean  Harper,  Cindy  Watter,  Germaine  Weaver, 
and  Molly  Martin. 

For  seven  days  in  August,  the  beautiful  city  of  Ox- 
ford was  "bombarded"  with  1 52  Alice  lovers  from  fifteen  na- 
tions, with  but  a  single  purpose  —  to  learn  more  about  the 
don  who  once  lived  in  the  hallowed  walls  of  Christ  Church. 

"The  tone  of  the  week  was  set  when  I  registered  at  the 
conference  and  Anne  Clarke  Amor  insisted  on  carrying 
my  bags  to  my  room.  I  am  sure  they  weighed  more  than 
she  did!  One  of  the  fears  some  of  the  first-timers  had 
expressed  to  each  other  was  that  the  celebrated  keepers 
of  the  Carrollian  flame  would  be  cliquish,  but  we  quickly 
saw  that  was  unfounded,  and  we  settled  into  a  delightful 
and  memorable  week.  The  very  first  thing  I  noticed,  upon 
leaving  my  room,  was  a  striking-to-the-point-of-fear-in- 
spiring  statue  of  Dean  Liddell  hovering  over  the  gate- 
way. I  had  to  wonder  what  he  would  have  thought  about 
all  the  hoopla  over  his  onetime  sublibrarian. 

Everyone  looked  out  for  us:  the  programme  organizers 
even  stationed  themselves  along  St.  Aldate's  so  we 
wouldn't  be  tempted  to  jaywalk.  Given  the  mad  speeders 
who  for  some  reason  prefer  to  drive  on  the  wrong  side  of 
the  street,  this  was  a  very  sound  idea."  -  cw 

Each  morning  began  with  a  delicious  breakfast  in 
the  Great  Hall,  and  then  on  to  the  chaplaincy  for  two  lec- 
tures; afternoons,  we  had  our  choice  of  nine  tours,  below;  in 
the  evenings  a  variety  of  "entertainments"  was  offered. 

SUNDAY 

Lecture  I:  "'Who  are  you?',  said  the  caterpillar." 

Edward  Wakeling  noted  that  this  was  not  a  promising  open- 
ing for  a  conversation  between  Alice  and  the  caterpillar,  but 
he  used  it  as  an  opening  for  a  discussion  of  Charles  Lutwidge 
Dodgson,  who  was  somewhat  contradictory,  he  felt:  highly 
intellectual,  yet  remote;  seemingly  shy  and  retiring,  but  seek- 
ing out  the  important  people  of  the  day.  "Combining  erudi- 
tion and  kindness  to  an  unusual  degree",  Wakeling  talked 
about  CLD's  early  life  and  family  background. 

Evensong.  Several  of  us  who  attended  the  Carroll 
memorial  noticed,  on  the  wall  to  the  left  of  the  cathedral  door, 
a  listing  of  those  Ch.Ch.  men  who  had  fallen  in  the  Great  War. 
Among  them  was  a  familiar  name:  Leopold  Reginald 
Hargreaves.  This  historic  church,  in  which  Dodgson  attended 
daily  services,  the  order  of  worship  for  Evensong ,  the  music, 
and  the  reading  by  Amy  Williams,  approximately  Alice's  age, 
provided  us  some  poignant  moments.  The  readings  were 
Matthew  18:1-10  (Dodgson 's  {pere}  favorite).  The  Psalm 
that  was  read  contains  CLD's  favorite  text  (Psalm  1 07:30);  in 
fact,  the  entire  service  was  based  on  hymns  he  liked,  a  ser- 


mon he  preached,  and  the  sermon  Dean  Paget  gave  after  the 
deaths  of  Carroll  and  Liddell. 

Dinner.  We  then  had  dinner  in  the  Great  Hall,  where 
CLD  took  perhaps  8,000  meals  (by  his  own  estimate),  enjoy- 
ing the  Tudor  ambiance  and  the  good  food.  We  observed  the 
famous  portrait  of  Dodgson  on  our  immediate  right  as  we 
entered,  the  one  of  Liddell  at  the  other  end  of  the  hall,  and  the 
fabulous  stained  glass  window  featuring  CLD,  Alice  Liddell, 
the  Cheshire  Cat  and  the  White  Rabbit.  By  then  we  were 
starving,  and  not  even  the  chronically  grouchy  Henry  VIII 
could  put  us  off  our  food.  The  hammer-beam  ceilings  were 
beautiful,  but  more  fun  were  the  brass  firedogs,  featuring 
cardinals  (ecclesiastical  variety)  with  ominously  stretched- 
out  necks.  These  were  mentioned  later  in  the  week  as  a  pos- 
sible inspiration  for  the  Alice-as-serpent  episode. 

"As  an  American,  I'd  always  pronounced  the  "g"  in 
Dodgson;  I  was  floored  to  find  I've  been  saying  the  name 
of  my  favorite  author  incorrectly  all  these  years!  In  the 
1932  centenary  newsreel,  Alice  Hargreaves  pronounces 
it  'Dodson'  (as  does  everyone  in  England)."  -  mm 

Films.  After  dinner,  David  Schaefer  showed  films 
and  clips  from  his  outstanding,  one-of-a-kind  collection. 

MONDAY 

II:  "In  Full  Academicals".  With  fascinating  infor- 
mation from  the  letters  and  diaries  as  well  as  other  sources, 
Edward  Wakeling  described  Dodgson's  time  at  Ch.Ch.  from 
his  undergraduate  years  through  his  retirement.  He  described 
the  rise  of  a  very  intelligent,  albeit  poor  young  man  to  a 
secure  career.  Although  CLD's  career  path  may  look  like  a 
smooth  trajectory  to  us,  there  were  many  small  frustrations 
along  the  way.  A  big  one  was  having  had  to  delay  his  studies 
because  of  the  lack  of  available  rooms.  The  young  nobles 
who  infested  Ch.  Ch.  had  a  pretty  good  deal:  they  could  keep 
their  hunters  at  college,  skip  tutorials,  drink  to  excess,  and 
take  up  living  quarters!  They  wore  little  gold  tassels  on  their 
headgear,  from  whence  comes  the  term  "tuft  hunter"  (Mrs. 
Liddell's  hobby).  One  feature  of  his  life  at  Oxford  was  his 
writing  of  pamphlets,  some  of  which  were  quite  witty,  par- 
ticularly when  he  objected  to  the  numerous  changes  bought 
about  by  the  activist  Dean  Liddell. 

in:  "Lewis  Carroll  and  the  Liddells".  "Anne  Clark 
Amor  knows  everything  about  the  Liddells"  -  cw.  She  is  very 
sympathetic  to  the  Dean,  and  read  his  affecting  words  about 
the  death  of  his  little  son;  also  from  the  letters  he  wrote  to  his 
young  and  socially  ambitious  fiancee,  where  he  warned  her 
of  the  "vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit"  that  would  of  necessity 
accrue  to  all  who  entered  the  social  ramble.  So,  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  take  over  the  Westminster  school,  got  married, 
and  instantly  began  to  mix  in  high  society!  His  beautiful  wife 
was  an  enormous  success.  ACA  believes  that  CLD's  friend- 
ship with  the  children  came  about  because,  as  the  oldest 
boy,  he  had  been  encouraged  to  look  after  his  younger  broth- 
ers and  sisters.  (Indeed,  he  took  care  of  his  sisters  until  his 
death.)  He  was  no  doubt  delighted  when  a  family  moved  into 
the  Deanery.  It  was  very  easy  to  imagine  him  looking  out  the 
library  windows  into  the  lovely  garden  underneath... 


Entertainments.  There  were  a  number  of  evening 
"entertainments"  —  the  difficult  task  for  us  being  to  choose 
only  three  of  the  six  selections  offered  —  which  included 
trying  Dodgson's  arithmetic  methods,  playing  some  of  his 
games,  testing  our  knowledge  at  Quiz  night,  and  discussing 
how  Carroll's  books  have  made  their  way  throughout  the 
globe. 

In  "Alice  Around  the  World",  Selwyn  gave  every- 
one in  the  room  a  chance  to  speak.  Representatives  from  at 
least  nine  different  countries  were  in  the  audience.  They  shared 
their  difficulties  of  publishing  Alice  in  a  foreign  language  or 
talked  about  their 
Carroll  Society.  We 
heard  about  the  new 
Australian  and  Cana- 
dian Societies. 
Kazumi  Goto  and 
Yoshi  Momma  shared 
posters  from  their 
Japanese  meetings  — 
we  were  amazed  that 
the  Japanese  Society 
meets  1 0  times  a  year. 
With  a  smile,  Kazumi 
noted,  "Japan  is  a 
small  country!"  Rina 
Litvin-Biberman  from 
Israel  read  her  re- 
cently published 
"Jabberwocky"  in 
Hebrew.  Her  transla- 
tion of  ,4  Win  Hebrew 
was  published  last 
year  and  she  is  work- 
ing on  TTLG.  Other 
speakers  were  from 
Slovenia,  the  Nether- 
lands, Brazil,  etc. 


TUESDAY 


tV-* 


IV:    "And 

what  is  the  use  of  a  book,"  thought  Alice,  "without  pictures 
or  conversations?"  Selwyn  Goodacre,  in  "a  lively,  opinion- 
ated and  highly  theatrical  performance"  spoke  on  the  epi- 
sodic nature  of  the  books.  In  a  critical  examination,  Goodacre 
indicated  how  well  each  episode  works  in  what  could  have 
been  a  problem:  one  child  meeting  a  series  of  adult  charac- 
ters. Carroll  constructed  the  episodes  so  that  Alice  is  either 
on  a  equal  footing  with  an  adult,  e.g.  sitting  at  the  head  of  the 
table;  or  having  the  support  of  an  adult.  He  allowed  as  how 
CLD  may  well  have  been  an  outstanding  photographer  of 
children,  "but  would  we  be  here  today  if  he  had  not  written 
the  Alice  books?  T  think  not! '  I  can  hear  you  cry!"  He  pointed 
out  that  the  Alice  books  are  among  the  very  few  children's 
books  to  which  people  repeatedly  return.  We  enjoyed  his 
description  of  the  tea  party,  which  contained  three  very 
strong  personalities.  Alice  achieves  peer  status  by  winning 


a  false  argument,  and  taking  the  position  of  authority  at  the 
head  of  the  table.  While  he  was  talking  about  how  well  Alice 
handled  the  servants  at  the  duchess'  house  and  the  croquet 
party  (she  knew  how  to  talk  to  the  gardeners  and  became 
quite  miffed  at  the  frog  footman's  "idiotic"  behavior),  we 
wondered  if  CLD  somehow  foresaw  enchanting  little  Alice 
becoming  very  much  her  mother's  daughter!  Goodacre 
pointed  out  that  the  violence  in  the  Alice  books  is  tempered 
by  the  genius  of  Carroll:  it  is  funny  and  controlled.  He  also 
noted  that  it  is  not  a  coincidence  that  children's  books,  after 
Alice,  became  noted  for  higher  quality  illustrations.  He  gave 

a  list  of  10  ideas  that 
Carroll  pioneered:  the 
journey  into  strange 
lands  (E.  Nesbit;  C.S. 
Lewis);  the  quest  for 
the  golden  garden  — 
possibly  because  of 
the  difficulty  getting 
into  many  of  the  gar- 
dens in  Oxford!  (E. 
Nesbit  again;  The  Se- 
cret Garden);  the  ve- 
hicle for  humor  (in 
general,  there  had  not 
been  much  humor  in 
children's  books)  ;  a 
message  (also  C.S. 
Lewis)  that  included 
good  manners,  inde- 
pendent minds,  and 
the  ability  to  argue 
without  being  ex- 
tremely officious;  an 
extemporaneous  tale 
{Wind  in  the  Willows; 
Winnie  the  Pooh);  a 
satire  of  contemporary 
life;  instruction  in  logic 
and  mathematics;  lan- 
guage play;  a  non- 
sense story,  including  anthropomorphic  animals,  that  led  to 
a  whole  line  of  books;  finally,  a  strong  character  {Mary 
Poppins). 

V:  "Mystic,  awful  was  the  process".  This  was  a 
fascinating  analysis  by  Edward  Wakeling  of  Dodgson's  work 
as  a  pioneering  Victorian  photographer,  illustrated  with  CLD's 
own  photographs,  all  the  more  timely  because  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery  in  London  had  simultaneously  mounted  an 
exhibit  of  his  works  (and  a  camera  "made  of  sliding  folding 
rosewood").  Dodgson  set  high  standards  for  himself  both 
technically  and  artistically.  Photographs  by  CLD  are  still  com- 
ing to  light  (a  totally  new  album  sold  at  auction  last  year,  for 
example);  there  may  be  as  many  as  three  thousand  in  all.  He 
noted  the  need  for  a  catalog  of  these  prints. 

Wakeling  placed  his  oeuvre  in  the  context  of  the 
time;  for  example,  the  photograph  of  Alice  Liddell  as  "The 


Beggar  Maid".  Today  "we  see  an  image  that  Dodgson  did 
not  intend";  many  people  see  it  as  a  suggestive,  if  not  down- 
right seductive,  picture,  which  says  a  great  deal  about  our 
culture.  Then,  the  beggar  child  simply  "fed  the  sentimental 
appetite  of  the  upper  classes."  In  other  words,  deplore  pov- 
erty, but  don't  do  anything  about  it.  The  extraordinarily  di- 
rect expression  was  not  designed  to  be  provocative,  but  was 
a  result  of  the  lengthy  time  lapse  needed  to  make  an  expo- 
sure. 

Evening.  Selwyn  and  Edward  conducted  a  meeting 
on  rare  Alice  books  and  their  collectors.  Selwyn  said  "This 
meeting  will  not  be  a  dual  lecture  but  an  interaction  work- 
shop!" But  the  "dual"  turned  into  a  duel  as  Tweedledee  and 
Tweedledum  tried  to  outdo  each  other.  If  Edward  were  de- 
scribing his  copy,  Selwyn  would  pull  the  identical  edition 
from  his  pile  of  books  —  only  it  would  be  a  presentation 
copy.  Or  one  would  have  a  light  blue  Snark,  but  the  other 
one  would  have  a  darker  blue.  Collectors  Charlie  Lovett,  Alan 
Tannenbaum  and  David  Schaefer 
added  to  our  amusement  with  stories 
of  their  Alice  finds. 

Elsewhere,  Sarah  Stanfield 
was  discussing  the  unsuccessful 
Lewis  Carroll  theater  plays.  She  gave 
each  of  the  1 8  people  in  the  group  sev- 
eral parts  to  read.  Surprisingly,  no  one 
was  timid  and  the  evening  was  filled 
with  laughter,  especially  when  our 
Japanese  friends  sang  their  parts! 

WEDNESDAY 

VI:  "Still  she  haunts  me:  the 
life  and  times  of  Alice  Liddell".  In  this, 
as  in  her  previous  lecture,  Anne  Clarke 
Amor  made  the  Liddell  family  as  famil- 
iar as  old  friends.  She  believes  that 
CLD  was  indeed  in  love  with  Alice  Liddell.  Now,  when  you 
hear  Veronica  Hickie  read  "Faces  in  the  Fire"  or  read  "Child 
of  the  pure  unclouded  brow"  yourself,  this  can  seem  terribly 
tragic.  As  usual,  her  presentation  was  sympathetic,  thorough, 
and  fair  to  her  subjects. 

VII:  "The  Lewis  Carroll  Collection  and  Archive  at 
Ch.Ch."  Librarian  Janet  McMullin  and  archivist  Judith 
Curthoys  discussed  the  two  Lewis  Carroll  collections  of  the 
college.  In  the  archives,  there  are  two  small  shelves  of  CLD's 
papers,  which  show  Dodgson's  obsession  with  details,  such 
as  ones  pertaining  to  the  wine  cellar.  Also  among  the  library 
holdings  are  Caryl  Hargreaves'  collection  of  books  and  let- 
ters, Alice's  sketch  books  and  a  variety  of  secondary  mate- 
rial about  Carroll.  Miss  McMullin's  comment  about  CLD  when 
he  was  in  charge  of  the  common  room:  "It  is  hard  to  tell 
whether  he  was  very  diligent  or  extremely  fussy."  A  favorite 
Dodgson  note  is  his  recommendation  of  his  brother's  mar- 
malade, another  a  letter  to  Alice  from  her  father:  "I  do  not 
think  you  can  refuse  Mr.  Dodgson..."  It  is  clear  Alice  con- 
sulted with  the  dean  about  whether  she  should  allow  the 
manuscript  to  be  reprinted  in  facsimile.  Ch.Ch.  also  has  the 


"Your  generous  donation,"  said  the  Dodo, 
"will  help  us  in  our  quest  to  find  a  cure  for 
extinction." 


Cheshire  Cat  flag  flown  by  the  ship  that  returned  Alice  to 
England  from  the  Columbia  festivities. 

VIII:  "Lewis  Carroll  and  the  World  of  Victorian 
Art  and  Entertainment".  Hugues  Lebailly,  Carrollian  scholar 
and  member  of  the  French  Society  of  Victorian  Studies,  dis- 
cussed CLD  as  a  "cultured,  refined,  and  sensitive"  observer 
of  the  Victorian  arts  scene,  whose  records  are  very  valuable 
to  us  today.  The  diaries  record  a  large  number  of  visits  to 
theaters  (697),  art  galleries  (over  1 87),  concerts  and  ballets 
(123),  and  they  and  his  letters  testify  to  his  friendships  with 
major  artists;  he  visited  artists'  studios  and  critiqued  over 
two  hundred  paintings. 

"Although  I  don't  think  Dodgson  is  going  to  give  the 
Comte  de  Montesquieu  any  competition  as  a  boulevard- 
ier  of  the  first  rank,  it  was  a  relief  to  see  that  the  man 
didn't  just  sit  around  in  his  room  chewing  his  nails  and 
complaining  about  Christ  Church  on  his  off  hours  from 
being  a  genius."  -  cw 

THURSDAY 

IX:  "An  animal  that  writes 
letters".  Mark  Richards  entertainingly 
used  Dodgson's  definition  of  "man"  to 
examine  the  history  of  his  letter  writ- 
ing, which  began  at  the  age  of  five. 
Mark  described  the  changes  in  the 
postal  system  in  1 840  when  CLD  was  a 
child,  which  made  letter  writing  very 
much  a  "craze  of  the  penny  post"  (at 
240/7.  to  the  £).  Using  extracts  from  the 
approximately  fifty  thousand  Dodgson 
letters,  he  provided  many  examples  of 
his  humor  —  nonsense  letters  about 
writing  letters,  inventions  e.g.,  a  rebus 
letter,  a  spiral  letter,  tiny  writing,  a 
"fake"  letter,  shaking  writing  ("I'm  getting  over  my  fear  of 
you"),  and  mirror  image  writing.  In  1 888,  Dodgson  purchased 
a  Hammond  typewriter,  kept  as  a  novelty  and  not  much  used. 
Richards  suggested  that  the  letters  may  be  Dodgson's  great- 
est work.  He  also  read  the  famous  letter  from  CLD's  father, 
which  certainly  suggests  that  there  is  a  gene  for  nonsense. 
X:  "Sense  and  nonsense:  Lewis  Carroll  as  Poet". 
The  "emphatic"  Dr.  Selwyn  Goodacre  returned,  telling  us  that 
most  people  are  familiar  only  with  Carroll's  nonsense  verse, 
but  he  thinks  the  "serious  verse  was  poetry  of  the  highest 
order."  Some  of  Carroll's  poetry  was  inspired,  some  was  run- 
of-the-mill,  "like  Wordsworth",  he  cracked.  Carroll  was  a  "prac- 
ticed poet  from  an  early  age",  experimenting  with  meter  and 
trying  things  out.  In  his  poems,  rhyme  and  meaning  fit  per- 
fectly, and  he  was  a  master  of  parody  and  humor.  The  first 
poem  to  appear  under  his  name  was  "Solitude" —  perhaps 
his  worst  poem,  yet  one  which  Selwyn  "personally  feels 
charming,  heart-felt  and  delightful."  His  best  poem,  Dr. 
Goodacre  feels,  is  "How  Shall  I  be  a  Poet?"  He  mentioned  the 
"homely  humor  and  vitality  of  the  Rectory  Umbrella".  He 
also  pointed  out  that  Carroll's  mastery  of  poetry  coincided 
with  the  mastery  of  his  prose  writing,  and  expanded  upon 


8 


"All  in  the  golden  afternoon",  praising  its  "technical  bril- 
liance". He  said  that  the  third  verse  summarizes  everything 
about  Lewis  Carroll  —  with  short,  clipped  words,  then  some 
gentler  tones,  internal  rhymes,  and  of  course,  nonsense.  The 
poem  finishes  with  a  distinct  "mystical  flavor".  In  "Child  of 
the  pure  unclouded  brow",  Carroll  "goes  back  to  the  source 
of  his  inspiration".  Goodacre  praised  the  "unmaudlin  nostal- 
gia" and  gentle  rhythm.  He  asked,  "How  many  children's 
books  successfully  introduce  high-quality  poetry  to  their 
audience?"  He  named  two  (Winnie-the-Pooh  and  Rebecca  of 
Sunnybrook  Farm),  but  Carroll's  were  the  first.  He  also 
pointed  out  that  in  AW,  Alice  recites  the  poetry.  In  TTLG,  it  is 
just  the  reverse  —  the  other  characters  do  the  reciting. 
Goodacre  paid  tribute  to  "the  most  erudite  character,  Humpty 
Dumpty."  He  also  discussed  his  specialty,  The  Hunting  of 
the  Snark,  pointing  out  the  contrasting  rhythms  and  sounds. 
Unfortunately,  by  the  1870s  Carroll's  genius  had  begun  to 
desert  him,  and  "charm  has  given  way  to  a  coarse  sentimen- 
tality". Goodacre  also  mentioned  that 
"The  Evidence"  is  pure  nonsense,  al- 
though people  are  often  tempted  to 
sort  it  out.  "Believe  me,  I've  tried  and 
it  can't  be  done."  He  ended  with  "You 
have  only  to  look  at  other  people's 
parodies  to  appreciate  Lewis  Carroll." 
That  evening  brought  us  to 
the  Old  Firehouse,  now  a  small  theater, 
where  Kevin  Moore,  in  a  one  man 
show  called  Crocodiles  in  Cream,  pre- 
sented different  facets  of  Carroll's  life. 
All  of  this  was  in  Carroll's  own  words, 
selected  by  David  Horlock  from  the 
stories,  poems,  diaries  and  letters. 

FRIDAY 


WdSKff/ 


XI.  "Sylvie  and  Bruno:  its 
value  as  literature  and  as  a  vehicle  for  Carroll's  ideas  about 
life".  In  the  eleventh  lecture,  Mark  Richards  (who  is  pos- 
sessed of  "a  dry  wit"),  examined  the  problematical  Sylvie 
and  Bruno  .  Here  Carroll  was  at  his  best  and  at  his  worst.  It 
seems  that  in  these  two  books,  the  aging  Carroll  wanted  to 
use  up  all  of  his  leftover  material.  The  books  began  as  a 
story,  "Bruno's  Revenge",  published  in  Aunt  Judy's  Maga- 
zine in  1 867,  which  led  to  his  being  asked  for  more.  The  books 
drift  between  two  worlds  —  an  imaginary  world  with  fairies 
and  a  real  world.  In  his  explorations  with  time,  Carroll  showed 
a  fascination  with  science  (and  "science  fiction").  Most  read- 
ers are  deterred  by  the  use  of  baby  talk  in  these  books.  Al- 
though Carroll  showed  some  lack  of  literary  judgment, 
Richards  persuasively  argued  that  they  are  worth  reading 
because,  if  nothing  else,  one  learns  about  Carroll  himself. 

He  sees  two  characteristics  that  stand  out  in  this 
book:  a  feeling  that  time  was  running  out,  and  a  desire  to  use 
up  all  his  available  material.  "He  was  rather  like  a  dressmaker 
who  felt  the  need  to  make  something  out  of  the  remaining 
scraps.  Nothing  could  be  wasted." 


"I  think  it  most  admirable,"  said  Alice,  "that 
you  gave  up  a  thriving  law  practice  to  be  with 
this  lovely  child." 


XII:  "Lewis  Carroll:  the  Man  and  the  Myth".  The 

final  lecture  was  given  by  Anne  Clark  Amor.  In  the  20th  Cen- 
tury there  has  emerged  wide  interest  in  the  private  lives  of 
public  figures,  but  in  the  19th  century,  private  lives  were 
private  lives,  which  makes  it  difficult  to  separate  myth  from 
reality  when  it  comes  to  examining  Dodgson  or  others  of  his 
time.  In  brief,  he  chose  to  remain  single.  It  took  so  long  to 
establish  a  career,  especially  if  one  did  not  have  a  rich  family's 
support,  that  many  men  made  late  marriages,  as  did  Liddell, 
Pusey,  and  so  forth.  CLD  decided  early  on  that  that  was  not 
for  him.  And  on  the  great  question  of  Carroll's  interest  in 
young  girls,  ACA  said  we  should  go  to  the  sources  and  read 
the  many  letters  and  reminiscences  of  his  child  friends.  No- 
where is  there  the  slightest  hint  of  impropriety.  On  the  con- 
trary, all  his  child  friends,  when  grown,  describe  him  with 
great  affection.  ACA  said  that  his  famous  remark  about  hav- 
ing no  use  for  boys  was  simply  a  joking  overstatement.  At 
anv  rate,  the  obsession  with  Carroll's  sex  life  is  more  a  reflec- 
tion on  our  society  than  his! 

Before  our  final  Gala  Dinner, 
we  assembled  on  the  lawn  of  Tom  Quad 
for  champagne  and  final  picture  tak- 
ing. We  felt  that  we  had  become  a  true 
community. 

"I  did  not  have  the  slightest  desire 
to  jerk  the  tablecloth  out  from  under 
the  House's  Royal  Doulton,  but  I  was 
dying  for  the  salt  cellars  and  wine 
bottles  to  take  wing  and  the  table 
lights  to  shoot  up  to  the  ceiling  Then, 
Edw.  Wakeling  introduced  the  re- 
doubtable Mavis  Batey,  authority  on 
Jane  Austen,  author  of  several  Alice 
books,  wife  of  Ch.Ch.  treasurer,  and 
savior  of  the  free  world  because  of 
her  work  on  Enigma  .  Goodness,  what  an  impressive  per- 
son. And  charming  and  funny,  too.  Her  descriptions  of 
the  Ch.Ch.  bureaucracy  and  her  efforts  to  reform  it  just  a 
little  were  straight  out  of  Screwtape.  Quite  a  night!"  -  cw 

SATURDAY 

Saturday  morning  was  devoted  to  a  question  and 
comment  period  directed  to  a  panel  of  Carroll  scholars:  Anne 
Clark  Amor,  Selwyn  Goodacre,  Charles  Lovett  and  Edward 
Wakeling.  Among  the  topics  discussed  were:  Lewis  Carroll's 
interest  in  science;  the  contention  that  the  Alice  stories  were, 
in  reality,  a  history  of  the  Oxford  movement,  which  Carroll 
denied;  the  London  plays  that  Dodgson  chose  not  to  see, 
e.g.  plays  by  Ibsen,  Shaw  and  Wilde;  and  Dodgson's  failure 
to  see  logic  as  a  basis  for  mathematics.  Then  closing  remarks 
to  this  memorable  week  were  given  by  Edward  Wakeling, 
Anne  Clark  Amor  and  John  Harris,  after  which  we  made  our 
final  farewells  over  coffee  and  tea. 

1  Cindy's  hyperbole  refers  to  Mavis'  work  as  part  of  a  team  under 
Alan  Turing  that  broke  the  German  "Enigma"  code  during  World  War 
II.  She  has  been  awarded  the  MBE,  and  is  also  the  author  of  many 
books  on  historic  English  gardens. 


THE  TOURS 

...were  another  highlight  of  the  trip.  There  were  various 
guides  on  the  same  tour  on  different  (or  the  same)  days. 

"Anyone  may  visit  Ch.Ch.,  but  not  just  anyone  may  go 
into  the  suite  that  was  Dodgson's  home  for  so  many  years, 
or  visit  the  Dean's  house  where  Alice  once  lived!"  -  gw 

Tour  A,  with  Edward  Wakeling  was  "Lewis  Carroll's 
Christ  Church".  We  began  with  the  room  Dodgson  occupied 
in  1 862  as  an  undergraduate  and  then  visited  some  of  the  ten 
rooms  he  lived  in  from  1 868  until  his  death  in  1 898.  We  exam- 
ined Tom  Tower,  Ch.Ch.  College,  the  Great  Hall,  and  the  Ca- 
thedral. The  Deanery  is  not  normally  open,  but  this  day  the 
Dean  and  his  family  were  away  so  we  were  privileged  to  see 
those  rooms.  We  were  stunned  by  the  beauty  of  the  Lexicon 
staircase,  the  William  Morris  wallpaper,  the  "nursery"  or  day- 
room  for  the  children  whom 
Dodgson  often  visited,  and  from 
which  he  could  look  across  the 
quad  to  his  own  rooms  —  and  from 
the  other  side  out  onto  the  gar- 
den. 

"Most  movies  show  white- 
washed wainscoting  in  nurser- 
ies —  not  so  the  Deanery's  — 
it's  entombed  with  severe  dark 
paneling.  'Tis  no  wonder  the 
Liddell  girls  longed  to  escape 
into  the  beautiful  gardens!"  -  mm 

The  Dean's  study  looks 
out  onto  the  Deanery  garden  made 
famous  by  Carroll.  From  there,  we 
could  see  the  library  where  the 
young  sublibrarian  toiled.  Once  in 
the  garden  we  saw  what  might  be 

the  "Cheshire  Cat  tree"  (because  of  its  branches  extending 
out  horizontally  and  now  heavily  propped  up)  and  the  green 
door  in  the  garden  wall.  In  the  well  tended  perennial  beds  — 
a  true  English  garden  —  one  member  of  the  tour  sighted  Bill 
the  Lizard. 

Another  version  of  this  tour  was  led  by  Michael 
Vine,  a  Ch.Ch.  man  himself.  Incidentally,  Lawrence  Lowe,  son 
of  a  former  Ch.Ch.  Dean,  was  on  this  tour,  and  added  to  our 
knowledge  and  pleasure.  For  example,  he  knew  that  the  fa- 
mous paneled  nursery  actually  had  had  a  second  floor  in- 
serted at  one  time.  We  also  went  'round  behind  the  cathe- 
dral, and  saw  Dean  Liddell's  grave,  placed  beneath  Burne- 
Jones'  stained  glass  window  memorializing  his  (the  Dean's) 
daughter  Edith.  We  toured  the  cathedral,  too,  and  went  into 
the  sanctum,  Carroll's  rooms  on  the  other  side  of  the  Quad. 
"It's  a  little  deflating  to  see  his  former  rooms  looking  like  a 
den  for  one  of  the  less  prosperous  American  fraternities." 
We  also  went  to  the  rooms  where  he  developed  his  photo- 
graphs. 

Tour  B,  "Lewis  Carroll  and  the  Libraries  of  Oxford" 
led  by  Michael  Vine.  We  proceeded  through  Convocation 


House,  through  the  Divinity  School,  up  several  flights  of 
stairs,  and  into  the  Bodleian  Library,  noting  the  list  of  bene- 
factors on  one  wall,  and  ending  in  Duke  Humfrey's  Library, 
with  some  of  its  ancient  manuscripts  still  chained  to  the  book- 
cases. 

"On  the  ground  floor  of  the  Ch.Ch.  library,  I  was  de- 
lighted to  see  a  bust  of  George  IV,  shoved  in  a  corner  and 
festooned  with  mops,  brooms,  and  a  Hoover!  I'm  not 
surprised  they're  running  out  of  space. .  .Mr.  Vine  is  very 
funny,  with  the  voice  of  the  pudding  at  Alice's  dinner, 
and  the  moral  authority  of  Humpty  Dumpty.  He  knows  a 
lot,  and  if  he  doesn't  know  it  he  is  more  than  willing  to 
make  it  up!  He  once  told  a  busload  of  passengers  how 
Alice  used  to  walk  around  the  park  with  her  arm  around  a 
deer's  neck..." -cw 

Tour  D:  "Lewis  Carroll  and  the  Museums  of  Ox- 
ford". Edw.  Wakeling  (yet  another 
Ch.Ch.  man)  took  us  on  the  tour. 
We  saw  the  special  Alice  exhibit  at 
the  Museum  of  Oxford,  just  down 
the  street  in  the  old  Town  hall.  The 
University  Museum  proved  to  be 
particularly  charming,  as  it  was  in- 
spired by  Ruskin,  meaning  to  say, 
inspired  by  Venice.  It  is  a  wonder- 
ful example  of  exuberant  Victoriana. 
There  we  saw  pieces  of  the  famous 
Dodo,  said  to  be  the  first  species 
completely  extinguished  by  man, 
and  one  of  the  Dodo  portraits.  Also 
the  giant  "tunny  fish".  It  was  here 
that  CLD  took  some  of  his  "great 
men"  portraits,  during  the  Evolu- 
tion debates.  Afterwards,  we  stag- 
gered over  to  the  Ch.Ch.  picture 
gallery,  and  looked  at  the  Carrolliana  there.  This  museum  has 
one  of  the  Carroll  photograph  albums,  plus  several  of  his 
steward  notes,  written  in  purple  ink. 

Tour  F.  Michael  Vine  and  Selwyn  Goodacre  took 
our  group  to  St.  Frideswide's  Church  in  the  Botley  Road,  and 
from  there  out  to  Binsey  (St.  Margaret's  Church  with  the 
"Treacle  Well"  and  a  graveyard  simply  packed  with  Pricketts). 
We  also  walked  along  the  path  next  to  the  river  at  Godstow 
and  stood  (we  feel  sure)  on  the  very  site  where  Carroll  told 
his  tale,  the  first  time.  A  "golden  afternoon",  as  Selwyn 
pointed  out,  with  the  sun  shining,  the  sky  glowing,  the  spires 
gleaming,  and  the  swans  swanning,  all  conspiring  to  create  a 
memory  of  a  beautiful  day. 

Tour  G:  Sarah  Stanfield  and  John  Harris  led  another 
tour,  "Numeham  Courtenay:  Looking-Glass  Land".  We  went 
by  coach  to  Harcourt  House,  a  Palladian  villa  now  owned  by 
a  religious  group.  The  Liddell  family  had  ties  with  the 
Harcourts  and  a  Harcourt  was  a  friend  of  Dodgson.  In  their 
day,  groups  coming  by  boat  could  bring  picnics  and  land  on 
the  property  Tuesday  and  Thursday  afternoons.  One  could 
appreciate  how  much  the  little  girls  must  have  loved  those 


"No  more  for  me,  Joe." 


10 


outings:  rowing  to  Nuneham  along  the  winding  river,  enjoy- 
ing picnics,  having  the  attention  of  adults,  learning  to  navi- 
gate a  boat,  and  of  course,  the  stories. 

"Though  all  the  tours  were  wondrous,  following  Mavis 
Bately  through  "Looking-Glass  Land"  at  Nuneham  was 
by  far  the  most  extraordinary!  Mavis,  author  of  The  World 
of  Alice,  knew  just  where  to  find  the  huts  that  Carroll  and 
his  friends  would  use  while  picnicking  on  the  Harcourt 
Estate.  Her  arms  encompassed  the  sundial  while  holding 
TennieFs  illustration  from  "Jabberwocky"  in  her  hands. 
We  listened  to  her  stories  about  how  Lewis  Carroll  would 
imagine  the  Red  Queen  and  the  White  Knight  in  these 
beautiful  woods!  It  was  hard  to  imagine  this  fairyland 
was  just  five  miles  from  Oxford!"  -  gw 

Tour  H.  Another  tour,  "Lewis  Carroll's  Oxford" ,  led 
by  Edward  Wakeling,  began  at  Meadow  Gate,  which  was 
built  by  Dean  Liddell  in  1860  in  the  Gothic  style;  and  then 
down  the  Broadwalk  between  trees  planted  by  Liddell,  onto 
the  River  Isis  along  a  pasture  owned  by  Ch.Ch.  College,  then 
back  toward  the  center  of  Oxford  along  a  narrow  stream  with 
its  small  boat  "ferry"  to  the  Ch.Ch.  playing  fields,  and  into 
several  colleges  where  Dodgson  had  some  connections,  in- 
cluding Pembroke  College  ( with  its  beautiful  and  prize  win- 
ning garden),  the  Girls'  Central  School  (where  Dodgson  taught 
logic),  Trinity  College,  Oriel  College,  and  finally  to  Corpus 
Christi,  where  we  could  look  out  upon  the  enclosed  garden 
where  the  Liddell  children  played. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  conference,  Ellie  (Schaefer- 
Salins)  read  us  a  poem  she  had  written.  Here  'tis: 

The  delegates  were  working  at  Ch.Ch. 

Working  with  all  their  might. 
They  did  their  very  best  to  teach 

About  Carroll  —  oh  so  right  — 
And  this  was  scarcely  odd  because 

They  never  slept  at  night. 

Oh  Edward  come  and  talk  to  us! 

The  audience  did  demand. 
A  pleasant  talk,  a  pleasant  walk, 

An  announcement  is  at  hand. 
And  when  you're  done,  we'd  like  to  hear 

Selwyn,  Mark  and  Anne. 

I  see  a  book,  a  teapot  there. 

Let's  buy  two,  no  three,  no  four! 
The  collectors  bought  up  everything 

And  wanted  more  and  more. 
I  suppose  they'd  better  stop  now, 

They're  going  to  miss  their  tour! 

The  tours  by  Alan,  Michael  and  more 

Showed  us  everything  to  see. 
Binsey,  a  Dodo,  several  museums 

And  of  course  the  Deanery, 
Libraries,  Tom  Tower,  a  wine  cellar, 

So,  where's  the  cat  in  a  tree? 


Thanks  also  goes  to  Sarah,  Catherine, 

Mr.  Harris  and  Ms.  Denney. 
I  always  wore  my  name  tag, 

And  never  forgot  my  key. 
The  meals  were  great,  the  conference  shop  nice, 

But  what  happened  to  my  money? 

Carroll  wrote  here,  Dodgson  lived  there; 

Your  facts  they  are  the  best. 
I've  learned  of  his  life  and  relationships; 

Now  will  there  be  a  test? 
I  really  should  go  home  now  because 

I  haven't  had  a  rest! 

The  time  has  come  (dear  Ellie  said), 

To  say  good-bye,  I  fear. 
Thanks  so  much  to  everyone; 

Friends  new  and  old  are  dear. 
I'll  miss  you  all,  let's  keep  in  touch, 

For  years  and  years  and  years! 

The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  and  the  University  of 
Oxford,  in  the  form  of  accomplished  lecturers  Edward 
Wakeling,  Selwyn  Goodacre,  Anne  Clark  Amor  and  Mark 
Richards,  along  with  Catherine  Richards,  John  Harris, 
Susan  Stanfield,  Michael  Vine,  Alan  White,  and  Liz  Denny, 
are  to  be  deeply  thanked  and  congratulated  for  creating  a 
conference  that  was  purposeful,  scholarly,  and  abundant 
in  humor,  good  fun  and  friendship. 

"They  played  on  Lewis  Carroll's  wit  and  matched 
it  with  their  own."  -  gw 

Still  she  haunts  us... 


This  wonderfiil  sculpture  by  Graham  Piggott  was  presented  to  Morton 
Cohen  at  his  celebratory  dinner  March  28th  at  our  New  York  meeting 
(KL  57,  p.5).  For  how  to  contact  Mr.  Piggott,  also  see  KL  57,  p.  16. 


11 


Leaves  from  the  Deanery  Garden 

1 .  A  Puzzle: 

Mine  cannot  have  been  the  only  eyes  to  widen  in  amazement 
on  reading,  in  the  excellent  Knight  Letter  57  (p.  19),  that  the 
phrase  "mad  as  a  hatter"  was  coined  by  Lewis  Carroll  (as  a 
witting  corruption  of  "mad  as  an  adder")  at  a  time  when  "'mad' 
meant  'venomous',  not  'insane'."  Is  it  possible  that  using 
"mad"  to  mean  "insane"  entirely  postdates  the  Mad  Hatter? 

No!  This  notion  —  credited  by  Barbara  Mikkelson  (on  a  web 
page)  to  the  aptly  titled  5, 000  Facts  and  Fancies  by  William 
Henry  P.  Phyfe  (1901)  and  A  Dictionary  of  Common  Falla- 
cies by  Phillip  Ward  (1980)  —  is  a  fallacy  and  fancy  of  aston- 
ishing audacity,  given  that  it  is  so  easily  falsified  by  a  mere 
glance  in  a  dictionary.  My  dictionary  is  the  1971  OED. 

Mad  derives  from  an  Old  English  form  of  madden,  ("to  ren- 
der insane"),  which  derives  from  Old  Saxon  and  Teutonic 
words  meaning  "to  incapacitate" 
(literally,  "to  cripple").  The  adjec- 
tive mad  has  meant  "mentally  in- 
capacitated" for  nearly  a  thou- 
sand years  and  has  never  meant 
"venomous".  Through  the  centu- 
ries of  English  literature  (Gower, 
Caxton,  Shakespeare,  Swinburne, 
the  King  James  Bible,  Pepys, 
Boswell,  Tennyson)  mad  has 
meant  "insane"  —  and  "insane- 
like"  ("mad  fury",  "mad  sugges- 
tion", "mad  haste"). 

Did  Lewis  Carroll  coin  the  phrase 
"mad  as  a  hatter"?  No!  (Does  it 
even  appear  anywhere  in  his  writ- 
ings?) When  he  was  yet  a  child 
the  expression  was  well  enough 
established  to  be  used  without 
explanation:  "Sister  Sail. .  .walked 
out  of  the  room,  as  mad  as  a  hat- 
ter", wrote  the  American  Thomas 

Haliburton  in  an  1 837-40  series  of  newspaper  sketches  called 
The  Clockmaker,  or  Sayings  and  Doings  of  Samuel  Slick  of 
Slickville.  And  Thomas  Hughes,  recreating  Rugby  as  it  was 
some  years  before  Charlie  Dodgson  attended  it,  wrote  in  his 
famous  1856  novel  Tom  Browns  Schooldays,  "He's  a  very 
good  fellow,  but  as  mad  as  a  hatter." 

As  our  friend  Martin  Gardner  points  out  in  The  Annotated 
Alice  (Clarkson  N.  Potter,  1 960,  /?.90),  the  phrases  "mad  as  a 
hatter"  and  "mad  as  a  March  hare"  were  already  current  when 
"The  Mad  Tea-Party"  was  written,  or  there  would  have  been 
no  point  in  creating  the  Mad  Hatter  and  the  March  Hare.  In 
the  same  note  he  acknowledges  the  hypothesis  that  "mad  as 
a  hatter"  is  a  corruption  of  "mad  as  an  adder",  but  finds  it 
more  probable  that  the  expression  derives  from  the  psychotic 
symptoms  of  hatters  reacting  to  toxic  levels  of  mercury  used 


to  cure  felt.  (His  More  Annotated  Alice  [p.  78]  refers  the 
reader  to  the  modern  medical  debate  about  this.) 

Barbara  Mikkelson  calls  the  mercury  hypothesis  a  "pop  ety- 
mology" but  apparently  offers  no  evidence  beyond  citing 
the  demonstrably  unreliable  Phyfe  and  Ward.  In  preparing 
his  Dictionary  of  Phrase  and  Fable,  E.  Cobham  Brewer  in- 
vestigated the  "mad  as  an  adder"  origin  but  concluded,  in 
1897,  that  "evidence  is  wanting."  A  century  later,  the  situa- 
tion seems  much  the  same! 

I  am  willing  to  believe  that  "mad  as  an  adder"  was  actually 
encountered  from  time  to  time  in  the  nineteenth  century,  but 
why  should  we  assume  it  was  the  original  expression?  My 
personal  guess  is  that  country  people,  more  familiar  with 
adders  than  hatters,  were  trying  to  make  sense  of  the 
unaspirated  "mad  as  a  'atter"  as  spoken  by  certain  urbanites. 
(In  the  same  way  some  American  country  folk  "corrected" 
asparagus  to  sparrow-grass.) 

2.  A  Query 

Although  I  was  in  London  at  the 
time,  I  was  unaware  of  the  auc- 
tion you  reported  (p.  22)  of  the 
"painting  'Girl  with  Lilac'  by 
Sophie  Anderson  which  used  to 
hang  over  Dodgson 's  mantel- 
piece." For  years  I  have  vainly 
searched  through  books  and 
collections  of  Pre-Rafaelite 
paintings  trying  to  find  so  much 
as  a  mention  of  Arthur  Hughes' 
"The  Lady  of  the  Lilacs",  which 
Derek  Hudson  (Lewis  Carroll: 
An  Illustrated  Biography,  1954), 
says  Dodgson  brought  to  hang 
in  his  rooms  in  Oxford.  Query: 
are  these  two  paintings  one  and 
the  same,  and  was  Mr.  Hudson 
in  error? 

3.  A  Plea 

Is  it  possible  that  someone  with  authority  —  perhaps  Morton 
Cohen,  perhaps  a  representative  of  our  Society  —  could 
politely  correct  the  entry  on  "Dodgson,  Charles  Lutwidge" 
in  The  American  Heritage  Dictionary  of  the  English  Lan- 
guage (Third  Edition),  which  identifies  Alice  Liddell  (un- 
named) as  "the  young  daughter  of  a  friend"?  I  believe  that  in 
his  biography  Prof.  Cohen  refers  to  Dodgson  and  Dean 
Liddell  as  "enemies"!  Surely  a  more  accurate,  succinct  word- 
ing is  conceivable. 

Thank  you  for  your  patience  and  for  producing  a  superbly 
entertaining  newsletter. 

Sincerely, 

Gary  Brockman 
Madison  CT 


12 


Thank  you,  Gary,  for  a  most  interesting  letter.  Let  me  ad- 
dress your  points  one  by  one: 

1.  I  generally  very  much  agree  with  you.  I  printed  the  item, 
beginning  "Barbara  Mikkelson  has  this  to  say...  "  much  as 
I  would  "Richard  Wallace  maintains...  (that  CLD  was  Jack 
the  Ripper)"  or  "Karolyn  Leach  believes... (that  Dodgson 
was  in  love  with  Alice's  sister  [or  mother,  or  whoever  it  is 
this  week]).  "  It  was  certainly  not  an  endorsement  of  the 
theory,  just  an  acknowledgment  of  a  dissenting  opinion  on 
a  commonly  held  belief.  I  do  not,  however,  think  you  can 
accurately  say  that  "mad"  has  never  meant  "venomous", 
when  its  most  common  usage  is  as  a  synonym  for  "angry". 
For  instance,  if  I  were  not  familiar  with  the  phrase,  1  would 
be  unable  to  determine  out  of  context  whether  Sister  Sail 
was  mad.angry  or  mad.deranged  in  the  quote  provided. 
But  overall  I  do  heartily  concur  with  you,  and  thank  you  for 
such  an  articulate  response  and  so  engaging  a  theory. 

The  ancient  lineage  of  these  metaphors  is  unquestioned  (e.g. 
The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  III  V  73,  has  a  woman  "mad  as  a 
March  Hare").  Gardner's  note  in  More  Annotated  Alice 
refers  toy et  another  interpretation  of  "adder",  namely  "one 
who  adds  "  and  reports  Ellis  Hillman  's  conjecture  that  it 
might  be  referring  to  a  mathematician  such  as  Dodgson 
himself,  or  his  Cambridge  acquaintance  Charles  Babbage. 

2.  It  is  indeed  an  odd  coincidence  that  Dodgson  had  two 
such  similarly-named  paintings.  Girl  with  Lilac  by  Sophie 
Anderson  (1823-1903)  is  the  one  recently  sold  by  Christie 's 
of  London  for  £30,000.  His  diary  of  6  July  1865  mentions 
this  portrait  (of  Elizabeth  Turnbull)  which  can  be  seen  sit- 
ting on  the  mantelpiece  in  photographs  of  his  room  at  Christ 
Church. 

And  hanging  just  over  the  mantelpiece  was  Arthur  Hughes ' 
Girl  with  Lilacs  (originally  titled  The  Lady  with  the  Lilac), 
which  was  painted  on  commission  for  CLD  and  acquired  on 
12  October  1863.  It  is  presently  exhibited  in  the  Art  Gallery 
of  Toronto.  Perhaps  it  might  be  worth  the  journey  for  you  to 
see  the  original! 

There  is  an  excellent  article  "Lewis  Carroll  the  Pre- 
Raphaelite:  'Fainting  in  Coils'"  by  Jeffrey  Stern  in  Lewis 
Carroll  Observed  (Clarkson  N.  Potter,  1976,  Edward 
Guiliano,  editor)  which  extensively  discusses  the  Hughes 
painting  and  its  influence  on  Carroll.  You  can  see  that 
Carroll's  original  illustration  for  Alice's  Adventures  under 
Ground,  p.  36,  is  modeled  on  this  painting. 

Anderson's  picture  can  be  seen  at  http:// 
www.lewiscarroll.org/centenary/lilac.JPG,  Hughes'  at 
http: //www.  cs.  uwindsor.  ca/units/english/projects/rossetti/ 
speaking/ compar2.htm,  which  also  contains  two  articles 
on  Carroll  and  the  Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood  (same  URL 
one  level  up  (ending  in  /speaking)).  Dodgson  s  room  can 
be  seen  at  http://www.lewiscarroll.org/centenary/room.gif 
or  in  Collingwood's  Life  and  Letters,  or  many  other  sources. 

3.  While  relations  with  the  Liddells  eventually  became 


strained,  I  personally  don't  think  "friend"  is  entirely  inap- 
propriate. He  certainly  had  to  maintain  "friendly",  or  at 
least  cordial,  relations  with  the  Dean  in  order  to  spend  as 
much  time  with  his  family  as  he  did  in  those  days.  How  their 
relationship  deteriorated  in  the  after-time  is  not  relevant. 

By  the  way,  letters  like  yours  are  why  I  started  "Leaves  from 
the  Deanery  Garden  ". 

The  Knight  Letter  (56)  intrigued  me  for  many  reasons  but,  in 
particular,  two  items: 

1 .  The  articles  by  Joyce  Carol  Oates  re:  her  interest  in  Alice 

2.  Ralph  Steadman's  familiar  illustration  of  Alice  looking  at 
empty  book  shelves  which  was  located  just  beneath  the  info 
on  my  Carroll  collection  going  to  Syracuse  University.  Even 
knowing  what  you  told  me  I'm  still  giving  you  credit  for  the 
appropriate  location.  She  [Ms.  Oates]  is  Syracuse  University 
Class  of  1960  and  I  have  been  in  her  audience  a  couple  of 
times.  One  day,  maybe  I  will  write  to  her  about  the  proximity 
of  her  papers  and  my  collection. 


Looking  forward  to  your  next  Knight  Letter. 


Kay  Rossman 
Sarasota  FL 


Kay  is  referring  to  the  "Serendipity"  department,  where 
Ms.  Oates  narrated  two  lengthy  (and  somewhat  contradic- 
tory) reactions  by  her  younger  self  to  the  Alice  books.  Ms. 
Oates  is  a  lifelong  fan  of  Carroll,  entitling  one  of  her  own 
books  Wonderland,  and  has  addressed  our  Society  on  at 
least  one  occasion  (in  Princeton,  some  time  ago.  I  also  gave 
a  small  talk  at  that  gathering,  and  fondly  remember  her 
bemused  expression  when  I  confessed  to  calling  the  section 
of  my  senior  thesis  on  my  two  favorite  authors  "Joyce/ 
Carroll  Notes  ".) 

My  choosing  of  that  particular  illustration  (frankly,  it  was 
based  on  its  shape)  of  her  "empty  nest "  was  a  fine  example 
of,  well,  serendipity. 

One  more  point  on  the  technology  debate  (because  it  leads 
directly  to  a  second  issue  I'd  like  to  discuss)  and  then  we  can 
consider  the  matter  closed. 

No,  I  am  not  a  "technophobe"  (a  term,  like  "homophobe",  I 
dislike  —  to  dispute  something  is  not  necessarily  to  fear  it). 
However,  there  should  be  a  place  for  technology  as  well  as  a 
place  to  take  refuge  from  it,  when  appropriate.  I  believe  that 
the  LCSNA  should  fall  into  the  latter  category.  For  instance, 
there  is  a  very  good  magazine  called  Victorian  which,  I'm 
sure,  requires  state-of-the-art  computer  technology  to  pro- 
duce. However,  I  do  not  wish  to  read  of  this  process  when  1 
look  through  its  pages.  The  magazine  provides  an  opportu- 
nity to  relive  another  era  and  to  embrace  an  earlier  lifestyle, 
allowing  for  a  new  perspective  on  one's  current  world  when 
finished.  The  nineties,  it  must  be  admitted,  are  something  of 
a  "quick-fix"  era,  as  evidenced  by  the  short-term  relation- 
ships, special-effects  films,  loud  music  and  electronic  books 
which  personify  the  decade.  It  is  the  age  of  immediate  grati- 


13 


fication,  the  use-and-dispose  styrotoam  era.  How  is  one  to 
grow  close  to  Lewis  Carroll  under  such  conditions  as  this? 
By  learning  what  it  was  like  living  in  the  era  that  produced 
Alice. 

For,  indeed,  could  Alice  have  been  published  today,  and  if 
so,  what  form  would  it  take?  Look  at  the  state  of  children's 
publishing  today,  and  see  what  the  quick-fix  mentality  of 
today's  technological  world  has  begotten:  the  Goosebumps 
series.  I  often  wonder  what  chance  Charles  Dodgson  would 
have  today  to  publish  his  challenging,  literate  little  book.  I 
marvel  that  a  first-time  author  could  secure  the  services  of  a 
world-famous  illustrator,  self-publish  his  book  through  a  sig- 
nificant publishing  house,  gain  mass  distribution  and  attract 
critical  attention,  even  in  the  1860's.  But  Dodgson  did.  To- 
day, publishers  would  question  his  target  audience  (too  liter- 
ary for  kids,  too  imaginative  for  adults),  they  would  "correct" 
his  nonconformist  writing  style  (addressing  the  reader,  for 
instance)  and  assign  him  an  editor  to  make  "suggestions" 
{i.e.  rewrite  the  book).  Of  course,  he  would  first  have  had  to 
find  an  agent  (few  of  whom  look  at  children's  books)  and  that 
agent  to  have  then  found  a  publisher.  Dodgson  could  never 
have  self-published  and  garnered  distribution,  never  gotten 
a  major  illustrator,  never  release  the  book  as  written.  This 
despite  all  of  the  modern-day  technological  breakthroughs 
which  should  have  revolutionized  the  publishing  industry, 
but  which  instead  have  limited  its  scope.  Where  are  the  Lewis 
Carrolls  and  the  Kenneth  Grahames  of  today?  Can  anyone 
recommend  a  good  children's  book?  Let's  be  thankful  that 
Charles  Dodgson  was  born  when  he  was.  Had  it  all  hap- 
pened now,  he'd  have  remained  solely  a  teacher,  never  pub- 
lished, never  gotten  the  money  to  travel  and  attend  the  the- 
atre as  frequently,  and  never  have  been  able  to  support  his 
sisters  in  the  fashion  that  he  did.  Nor  would  Alice  Hargreaves 
have  had  a  valuable  manuscript  to  sell  which  would  support 
her  in  her  old  age.  Mr.  Dodgson  would  have  a  computer, 
though. 

William  M.  Schaefer 
Las  Vegas,  NV 


/  have  to  disagree  respectfully,  William.  I  do  not  believe  the 
primary  purpose  of  the  LCSNA  is  to  encourage  fantasies  of 
bygone  eras.  It  is  to  promote  the  study  of  the  life,  times,  and 
works  of  Mr.  Dodgson  and  to  observe  his  influence  as  it 
spreads  throughout  many  cultures  and  new  media,  as  well 
as  the  older  ones.  Victorian  magazine  by  no  means  "requires  " 
state-of-the-art  technology  to  produce;  it  could  certainly 
be  produced  by  machines  with  hand-set  type  if  they  so  chose. 
It  may  belong  to  the  genre  of  fantasy  magazines  (no  differ- 
ent from  Island  Vacations  or  Star  Trek  ones),  but  I  do  not 
subscribe  to  that  viewpoint.  We're  here,  it's  now,  the  future 
will  happen,  and  Carroll's  influence  will  continue  to  be  felt. 

Having  said  that,  please  note  that  I  do  always  try,  whenever 
possible,  to  attach  addresses  and  phone  numbers  to  places 
and  products  I  find  through  the  Net. 


Your  last  paragraph  reflects  a  hypothetical  world,  to  which 
there  can  be  no  logical  response.  Perhaps  Dodgson  might 
have  found  an  illustrator  through  the  Net,  and  several  self- 
published  books  have  gone  on  to  become  classics.  The  list 
of  Caldecott  and  Newberry  award  winners  should  provide 
you  with  at  least  some  candidates  for  fine  writing  for  chil- 
dren (write  to  me  again  in  2099  for  an  accurate  appraisal), 
although  it  could  be  argued  that  CLD  was  not  really  writ- 
ing for  children  exclusively;  and  that  would  open  up  whole 
new  categories  of  authors  for  comparison  (like  Douglas 
Adams).  Not  to  mention  James  Thurber. 

As  for  manuscripts,  who's  to  say?  I  still  do  all  my  serious 
writing  in  longhand.  And  by  the  bye,  a  skillful  editor  does 
not  necessarily  rewrite  text  —  unless  it  is  beyond  hope. 
Thank  you  for  conceding  that  CLD  would  be  the  first  to  be 
fascinated  by  the  computer,  but  most  of  all  for  articulating 
your  views,  and  reminding  us  of  other  possible  perspectives 
and  directions  for  this  journal. 

In  the  Random  House  "Modern  Library" 's  edition  of  The 
Complete  Works  of  Lewis  Carroll  (1936),  p.\66,  the  Red 
Queen's  remark  is  misprinted  as  "If  you  want  to  get  some- 
where else,  you  must  run  at  last  twice  as  fast  as  that!". 

Pitt  Nicker 
Mill  Valley  CA 

Well,  now  we  know  where  the  phrase  "last,  but  not  least" 
comes  from. 

The  recent  Knight  Letter,  #57  referenced  an  animated  film  of 
The  Hunting  of  the  Snark.  I  do  not  have  any  specific  infor- 
mation about  that  film;  however,  in  1 99 1 , 1  had  the  opportu- 
nity to  view  a  video  of  an  opera  with  orchestra  based  on  the 
Snark.  This  was  at  Luera,  New  South  Wales,  approximately 
70  miles  from  Sydney,  Australia.  The  event  speaker  was 
Doug  Howick  and  his  knowledge  and  research  of  the  Snark 
was  incredible.  Doug  and  I,  with  about  5000  close  personal 
friends  belong  to  a  Lumberman's  organization  called  "Hoo- 
Hoo  International"  (http://www.hoo-hoo.org).  Our  interna- 
tional president  is  the  "Snark  of  the  Universe",  so  desig- 
nated by  one  of  our  founding  members  in  1 892.  Gurdon  is  the 
site  of  the  founding  of  the  International  Concatenated  Order 
of  Hoo-Hoo  and  is  the  home  of  our  museum.  Back  to  the 
original  question.  I  am  willing  to  contact  my  OZE  connec- 
tions and  try  to  secure  a  copy  of  the  Snark  opera  and  have 
the  tape  reformatted  to  our  VHS  standard  if  anyone  is  inter- 
ested. 

Christopher  Goff 
Houston,  TX 
CRSTuffer@aol.com 

Inevitably,  and  I  am  a  bit  embarrassed  to  write  this,  I  noticed 
another  small  correction  to  my  article  that  you  published  that 
some  of  your  very  astute  readers  may  have  already  noticed: 
the  line  from  Hamlet  should  read  ". .  .a  little  ere  the  mightiest 
(not  mighty)  Julius  fell".  I  apologize,  although  fortunately  it 
makes  little  difference  to  the  overall  point!  In  support  of  the 


14 


theory,  however,  the  only  other  time  in  LC's  work  in  which  he 
used  the  rather  unusual  word  "gibber"  other  than  quoting  it 
in  the  passage  from  "Phantasmagoria"  was  in  "The  Three 
Voices",  which  I  believe  was  written  in  1856,  not  too  long 
after  the  "Stanza  of  Anglo-Saxon  Poetry"  was  written.  Just 
for  the  record! 

Best  wishes, 

Alice  Krinsky 

Alice  Krinsky's  article  "Echoes  of  Shakespeare  in  the  First 
Stanza  of  Jabberwocky"  {KL  51,  pp.  7-9)  itself  seems  in  part 
to  be  an  echo,  an  unacknowledged  echo,  of  Frank 
McCormick's  essay  "Horatio's  gibber  and  Carroll's 
Jabberwocky"  published  mAnglia:  Zeitschrift  fur  englische 
Philologie,Bd.  105,  Heft  1/2, 1987,  p.  152-161.  Ms.  Krinsky's 
argument,  like  McCormick's,  begins  with  Horatio's  lines  from 
Act  I,  Scene  1  of  Hamlet:  "The  graves  stood  tenantless,  and 
the  sheeted  dead  /  Did  squeak  and  gibber  in  the  Roman 
streets." 

At  the  twentieth  anniversary  meeting  of  the  LCSNA,  at 
Princeton  on  Nov.  12,  1994, 1  discussed  McCormick's  "gib- 
ber" hypothesis  in  a  talk  I  called  "Jabberwocky  Revisited: 
More  Nonsense".  In  KL  49,  p.  5,  there  appeared  a  brief  ac- 
count of  my  lecture,  citing  Horatio's  "gibber"  and  other  gib- 
berish. 

Sincerely  yours, 

August  A.  Imholtz,  Jr. 

I'm  certain  Ms.  Krinsky,  who  describes  herself  as  being  "out 
of  strict  academia" ,  is  not  a  constant  reader  of  the  Anglia 
Zeitschrift,  and  I  would  also  like  to  thank  August  for  setting 
the  record  straight. 

I  couldn't  help  but  respond  when  encouraged  to  identify 
"Why  I  love  Lewis  Carroll"  ["Leaves...",  KL  51, p.  14].  My 
admiration  and  love  originates  with  the  Alice  stories  and 
goes  on  and  on... 

•  I  also  love  wondering  how  much  Mr.  Dodgson  re- 
ally loved  Alice  Liddell. 

•  I  love  the  man  because  of  his  imagination  and  how 
he  shared  it  with  those  he  loved  and  then  with  the  world. 

•  I  love  how  it  makes  me  laugh  to  picture  the  con- 
fused lizard  Bill  being  kicked  by  an  unknown  force  out 
of  the  chimney  as  everyone  yells,  "There  goes  Bill!". 

•  I  love  the  way  Alice  talks  aloud  to  herself.  It  makes 
me  smile  as  I  identify. 

•  I  so  much  enjoy  the  creativity  which  brought  so 
many  characters  to  life  for  me.  I  often  find  time  and 
again  that  I  am  laughing  aloud  or  sitting  with  a  broad 
grin  as  I  get  totally  swept  up  into  Wonderland  or  slip 
through  the  Looking-Glass. 

•  I  love  picturing  the  sight  Alice  saw  as  she  turned  to 
leave  the  tea  party  only  to  see  the  sleepy  dormouse 
being  stuffed  into  the  teapot. 

•  I  love  the  clumsy,  sweet  White  Knight  and  how  he 


felt  "it  would  encourage  him"  if  Alice  would  wave  her 
handkerchief  when  he  got  to  the  turn  in  the  road. 
•  And,  oh,  how  I  can  picture  the  White  Knight  on  his 

horse  amidst  the  setting  sun. 

I  could  easily  continue  (and  I  will  in  my  own  mind  because  it 
gives  pleasure  to  do  so).  I  truly,  truly  love  the  Alice  stories 
and  in  so  doing  touch  on  my  love  for  Lewis  Carroll.  Yet 
words  cannot  say  how  much  I  love  Charles  Dodgson  —  for 
the  man  he  was  and  the  pureness  of  his  heart  and  the  words 
he  shared. 

P.S.  I  can't  explain  it,  but  I  love  the  following  lines  and  every 
time  I  repeat  them  I  smile — always:  "In  the  midst  of  the  word 
he  was  trying  to  say  /  In  the  midst  of  his  laughter  and  glee  / 
He  had  softly  and  suddenly  vanished  away  /  For  the  Snark 
was  a  Boojum,  you  see." 

Thank  you  for  letting  me  share  some  of  my  thoughts. 

Cynthia  A  Lebie 

LC22 1  Alice@prodigy.net 

If  other  readers  would  care  to  reply  to  William  Schaefer  's 
request  (KL  57),  we  'd  be  happy  to  publish  them. 

[from  a  longer  letter  to  Sandor  Burstein]  ...  I  spent  the  Eas- 
ter/Pesach  weekend  reading  Dante's  Divine  Comedy... The 
reason  I  mention  it  is  the  interesting  remark  made  by  the 
editor,  Ralph  Pite,  in  his  comments  on  the  translation:  "Cary's 
translation  (1814)  appeared  when  Dante's  poem  received  more 
attention  and  was  more  influential  on  English  writers  than  at 
any  time  since  Chaucer.  Shelley,...  Keats,... Tennyson,... 
and  even  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland 
all  develop,  comment  on,  and  are  indebted  to  the  Commedia." 
(Everyman,  Charles  E.  Turtle,  1 994  ISBN  0  460  87522  1 ).  As  I 
can  hardly  imagine  the  White  Rabbit  in  the  role  of  Virgil,  or 
the  Queen  of  Hearts  as  Beatrice,  I  appeal  to  your  expertise  on 
this  matter.  Has  there,  for  example,  been  a  contribution  to 
your  magazine  on  this  subject? 

Dr.JillKlee 
Norway 

John  Docherty's  "Dantean  Allusions  in  Wonderland"  ap- 
peared in  Jabberwocky,  Vol.  19,  no.  1/2,  Winter -/Spring  1990, 
pp.  13-1 6. 

Since  my  last  letter  to  you,  I  have  had  time  think  deeply 
about  its  contents  and  the  type  of  "debate"  I  hope  to  spark 
by  submitting  it.  In  this  letter  I  claimed  that  the  nonsense/ 
antimeaning  school  of  thought  (spearheaded  by  scholars 
such  as  M.  Cohen  and  followed  by  the  great  majority  of  read- 
ers) as  a  concept  is  at  best  dubious  and  at  worst  self-contra- 
dictory. I  claimed  that  I  not  only  have  theoretical  arguments 
to  back  up  my  conclusions  but  that  I  have  discovered  all 
kinds  of  concrete  examples  as  well.  Ultimately,  in  my  opinion, 
it  will  be  the  many  concrete  examples  (and  not  abstract  philo- 
sophical arguments)  that  will  convince  people  that  Carroll 
hid  a  whole  of  pile  of  direct  and  indirect  meanings  in  his 
"nonsense".  However,  I  am  ready  to  address  both  the  theo- 


15 


retical  and  the  concrete  aspects  of  the  nonsense  versus  "non- 
sense" argument  if  only  someone  cares  to  defend  the  more 
popular  side  of  the  question. 

Stylistically,  I  will  attempt  to  keep  the  arguments  as  simple  as 
possible  in  order  to  be  understood  by  all  readers  of  the  Knight 
Letter  and  because,  I  believe,  that  most  of  the  wrong-headed 
approaches  to  Carroll  have  been  instigated  and  propagated 
by  high  fallutin'  jargon  and  scholarly/academic  double  talk. 
So  without  further  ado,  I  will  present  more  examples  of  Carroll's 
wordplay  which  have  so  far  been  either  not  recognized  or 
misunderstood. 

The  first  example  is  that  of  the  Dormouse.  By  reading  the  "A 
Mad  Tea  Party"  and  "Who  Stole  the  Tarts"  chapters,  a  per- 
son soon  comes  to  realize  that  there  is  something  strange  in 
the  way  Carroll  allows  the  Dormouse  to  be  treated.  It  seems 
that  those  near  the  Dormouse  are  at  times  either  "resting 
their  elbows  on  it",  "pinching"  it,  squeezing  it,  or  threatening 
to  "suppress"  him.  (What  Carroll  means  by  "suppress"  is 
easy  to  know  as  this  term  was  defined  by  the  following  de- 
scription: "As  that  is  rather  a  hard  word  {suppress},  I  will 
explain  how  it  was  done.  They  had  a  large  canvas  bag,  which 
tied  up  at  the  mouth  with  strings:  into  this  they  slipped  the 
guinea-pig,  head  first,  and  then  sat  upon  it.")  The  reason  for 
having  characters  do  the  "nonsensical"  actions  above  is  that 
the  word  "dormouse"  is  easily  confused  with  the  word 
"dormeuse"  which  is  a  type  of  lounge  chair  or  settee.  The 
Oxford  English  Dictionary  defines  "dormeuse"  (and  even 
presents  a  "mix  up"  between  the  words  in  a  quotation  from 
1753)  as: 

Dormeuse  (Fr.;  fern,  of  dormeur  sleeper,  applied  to  articles 
convenient  for  sleeping,  f.  dormir  to  sleep.)  1 .  A  hood  or 
nightcap.  Obs.  ...  1753  -  Let.  Mrs.  Dewes  in  Life  &  Corr. 
260  She  had  not  yet  been  able  to  get  her  dormouse. ...  3.  A 
kind  of  couch  or  settee.  1865  Strathmore  I.  vi.  94  He  lay 
back  in  a  dormeuse  before  the  fire. 

The  above  are  the  reasons  for  the  characters  to  do  all  of  their 
leaning,  sitting,  pinching,  squeezing,  etc.  actions  to  the  "Dor- 
mouse" 

If  the  above  explanation  wasn't  enough,  Carroll  in  both  ren- 
ditions of  "Bruno's  Revenge"  (found  as  a  short  story  or  as 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno)  very  nearly  re- 
peats the  same  "Dormouse/dormeuse"  joke  or  pun  of  AW. 
However,  instead  of  a  "Dormouse",  in  "Bruno's  Revenge" 
Carroll  tells  of  a  close-sounding  "dead  mouse":  "Bruno 
needed  no  second  invitation:  he  at  once  began  arranging  the 
dead  mouse  as  a  kind  of  sofa." 

So,  the  "Dormouse"  in  Carroll's  "nonsense"  is  a  "dormeuse", 
(and  a  "dead  mouse"),  in  a  similar  fashion  as  Edith  and  Lorina 
(Liddell),  Alice's  sisters,  are  the  Eagle  and  the  Lory.  On  the 
other  hand,  Carroll's  complex  "dormouse",  in  addition  to  be- 
ing a  "couch  or  settee"  is  also  a  bat!  This  can  be  seen  when 
we  look  at  the  Hatter's  song  and  how  the  "dormouse"  re- 
acted to  it:  "Twinkle,  Twinkle,  little  bat!  /  How  I  wonder  what 
you  are  at!  /  Up  above  the  world  you  fly  /  Like  a  tea-tray  in 


the  sky.  Twinkle,  Twinkle' 

Here  the  Dormouse  shook  itself,  and  began  singing  in  its 
sleep  'Twinkle,  twinkle,  twinkle,  twinkle. . . "' 

The  "Dormouse"  takes  the  song  as  a  command  because  in 
some  districts  of  England  (during  Victorian  times)  a  "dor- 
mouse" was  a  bat.  The  English  Dialect  Dictionary  provides 
us  with  the  following  helpful  definition: 

"Dormouse,  sb.  Glo. .  .The  bat,  so  called  because  it  sleeps  in 
winter. . .  Glo.  N&Q.(\  868) 

From  the  above  we  get  the  reason  why  the  "Dormouse"  thinks 
that  he  ought  to  "twinkle"  and  also  that  this  "batty"  use  of 
"dormouse"  was  recorded  in  1868.  Some  of  the  critics  will 
say  that  neither  The  English  Dialect  Dictionary  nor  this 
particular  issue  of  Notes  and  Queries  were  published  before 
AW.  To  this  objection  I  will  say  "so  what?"  Anyone  who 
knows  anything  about  dictionaries  (or  Notes  &  Queries)  will 
tell  you  that  it  takes  some  time  for  a  meaning  used  by  a  group 
of  people  to  be  officially  recorded  in  a  dictionary  or  a  similar 
publication.  Dictionaries  do  not  coin  meanings:  they  merely 
record  these  after  years  of  usage.  Anyway,  the  dictionary  is 
not  all  of  the  evidence  I  have.  I  also  have  Carroll's  definitions 
or  uses. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Alice  herself  makes  a  similar  con- 
nection between  a  mouse  and  a  bat  in  "Down  the  Rabbit- 
Hole":  "There  are  no  mice  in  the  air,  I  am  afraid,  but  you  might 
catch  a  bat,  and  that's  very  like  a  mouse,  you  know."  In  addi- 
tion, the  preface  to  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Concluded  contains 
the  following  macabre  set  of  puns  to  perhaps  support  all  of 
the  above  "Dormeuse  =  Dormouse  =  mouse  =  bat"  connec- 
tions. When  describing  the  Bruno  and  "dead  mouse"  epi- 
sode in  the  "Bruno's  Revenge"  chapter  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno, 
Carroll  writes:  "The  very  peculiar  use,  here  made  of  a  dead 
mouse,  comes  from  real  life.  I  once  found  two  very  small 
boys,  in  a  garden,  playing  a  microscopic  game  of  'Single 
Wicket'.  The  bat  was,  I  think,  about  the  size  of  a  table  spoon; 
the  outmost  distance  attained  by  the  ball,  in  it  most  daring 
flights,  was  4  or  5  yards.  The  exact  length  was  of  course  a 
matter  of  supreme  importance;  and  it  was  always  carefully 
measured  out  (the  batsman  and  the  bowler  amicably  sharing 
the  toil)  with  a  dead  mouse!" 

If  even  a  part  of  the  above  arguments  is  accepted,  it  will 
show  most  rational  readers  with  a  sense  of  humour  that  Carroll 
was  in  control  of  his  narratives  and  that  he  continually  gave 
clues  regarding  how  to  recognize  and  then  proceed  to  solve 
his  linguistic  riddles.  At  least  when  it  comes  to  analyzing  his 
use  of  the  word  "dormouse"  he  was  not  writing  "intuitively" 
-  the  "dormouse/dormeuse"  or  the  "dormouse/mouse/bat" 
puns  are  extremely  far  from  being  anything  which  could  lead 
to  Cohen's  "antimeaning"  conclusions!  At  the  same  time  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  "dormouse"  example  is  only 
one  of  the  many  equally  explainable  cases  I  am  prepared  to 
present  to  the  more  skeptical  in  the  LCSNA.  This  example 
must  do  for  now  and  I  leave  you  with  Carroll's  or  the  Duch- 
ess' moral  (which  has  gone  unheeded  for  far  too  long):  "take 


16 


care  of  the  sense  and  the  sounds  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves"! 

All  the  best  to  those  who  not  only  love  Carroll's  works  but 
also  want  to  understand  them  and  their  writer, 

Fernando  J.  Soto 
alphbeth@hotmail.com 

Queries 

Does  anyone  know  whether  Disney's  earlier  animated  foray 
into  Wonderland  called  "(Mickey)  Thru  the  Mirror"  (1936)  is 
available  on  video? 


Deborah  Caputo 
Australia 


Deborah's  just-coming-into-being  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of 
Australia  has  had  a  centenary  picnic  (10  January)  and  has 
produced  three  issues  q/The  Lobster's  Voice.  Contact  her  at 
39  Sackville  St.,  Bexley  NSW 22076,  Australia.  (But please 
also  send  the  video  information  to  the  KL). 

Being  a  particular  enthusiast  of  the  hermeneutics  of  The 
Books,  I  rather  enjoyed  the  sentence  from  High  Life  ("Far- 
flung",/?^  ):  "Some  say  the  story  echoes  Carroll's  own  birth 
trauma  in  the  Daresbury  parsonage,  others  that  it  mirrors  the 
sexual  act,  one  critic  argues  that  Alice  is  a  transvestite  Christ 
while  many  others  have  contended  that  Alice  is  a  phallus  — 
a  theory  that,  as  Morton  Cohen  remarks,  does  at  least  pro- 
vide us  with  a  rhyme."  Can  any  reader  help  in  tracking  down 
these  bizarre  interpretations? 

The  Editor 


3n  Jfflemodam 

Carol  Stoops  Droessler  became  ill  shortly  after  attend- 
ing our  March  meeting  in  New  York  City,  and  died 
peacefully  in  her  sleep  at  home  on  July  31,  of  cancer. 
Carol  was  a  member  of  the  LCSNA  for  many  years, 
attending  meetings  on  the  East  and  West  coasts,  of- 
ten accompanied  by  her  husband,  Earl.  Carol  was  a 
graduate  of  Longwood  College,  Farmville,  Virginia,  an 
active  member  of  the  Alumni  Board,  and  was  in  the 
process  of  giving  her  collection  of  Lewis  Carroll  items 
to  the  college  library. 

She  was  named  for  Carol  in  The  Bird's  Christmas  Carol 
by  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  and  became  an  avid  collector 
of  the  many  editions  of  Wiggin's  books. 

Carol  is  survived  by  her  husband,  Earl,  and  five  chil- 
dren. Donations  may  be  sent  to  the  Carol  Stoops 
Droessler  Scholarship  Fund  at  the  Longwood  College 
Alumni  Office,  201  High  Street,  Farmville,  VA  23909. 

~  Germaine  Weaver 

We  regretfully  also  note  the  passing  of  Mae  Durham 
Roger  (1918-  Sept.  25),  longtime  LCSNA  member,  li- 
brarian, and  authority  on  children's  books. 


r  Carrollian 
Notes 


Celebrating  Martin  Gardner 

Fran  Abeles  and  Stan  Isaacs 

The  Gathering  for  Gardener  III,  a  "by  invitation  only" 
event  bringing  together  from  the  USA,  Europe  and  Asia  about 
ninety  magicians,  mathematicians,  computer  scientists,  and 
puzzlists,  assembled  at  the  Hyatt  Regency  Hotel  in  down- 
town Atlanta  (G  A)  from  January  16- 18,  1998.  Gardner's  in- 
fluence on  their  own  work  was  widely  recognized  and  ac- 
knowledged by  speakers  and  performers  alike.  In  addition  to 
an  abundance  of  magic  tricks,  there  were  knots,  pentacubes, 
packings,  and  games.  Society  members  know  Gardner  as  the 
author  of  Logic  Machines  and  Diagrams  (1958,  1982),  The 
Annotated  Alice  (1960),  The  Annotated  Snark  (1962),  Snark 
Puzzle  Book  (\  975),  Wasp  in  the  Wig  ( 1 977),  More  Annotated 
Alice  (1990),  and  as  the  former  editor  of  the  "Mathematical 
Games"  section  of  Scientific  American  where  between  1960 
and  1975  he  included  many  of  Carroll's  games  and  puzzles. 

Adding  to  his  seventy-eight  page  bibliography  of 
Gardner's  work,  Dana  Richards  listed  translations  into  twenty 
languages.  Gardner's  writings  on  Lewis  Carroll  appear  in  five 
of  these  (French,  Italian,  Japanese,  Russian,  and  Spanish). 

At  the  gala  dinner  Saturday  evening,  the  Harvard 
mathematician  Noam  Elkies  entertained  us  by  illustrating  on 
the  piano  the  mathematical  principles  of  cantata  construc- 
tion, while  at  the  Friday  evening  dinner,  the  Harvey  Mudd 
mathematician  Arthur  Benjamin  again  dazzled  us  with  his 
feats  of  mental  calculation,  including  identifying  the  day  of 
the  week  with  any  date,  reminiscent  of  Carroll's  method  pub- 
lished in  Nature  in  1 887,  but  Benjamin  needed  only  five  sec- 
onds or  so,  not  the  fifteen  to  twenty-five  Carroll  claimed  was 
necessary  for  his  scheme. 

Gardner,  who  turned  83  on  October  21s,  was  unable 
to  attend  because  his  wife,  Charlotte,  was  not  well  enough  to 
make  the  trip.  (She  is  fine  now).  We  expect  to  see  them  both 
at  the  next  Gathering. 

More  from  Morton 

Morton  Cohen's  Lewis  Carroll:  A  Biography  has 
come  out  in  French  (AX  57,  p.  23),  recently  in  Spanish  (tr. 
Juan  Antonio  Molina  Foix,  Editorial  Anagrama,  Barcelona, 
Spain)  and  Portuguese  (Brazil,  details  to  follow),  and  now  on 
Books  on  Tape.  Part  I  on  eight  1  Vz  hour  cassettes,  read  by 
David  Case  (book  #4500-A),  is  out;  part  II  will  be  forthcom- 
ing: P.O.Box  7900,  Newport  Beach  CA  92658;  1  .800.88books; 
www.booksontape.  com. 


17 


<©_}[    ^SoWf^    8c 


The  Art  of  Alice  in  Wonderland 

Smithmark,  1998,0-7651-9133-4. 

What  an  annus  mirabilis  it  has  been  for  our  own 
Stephanie  Lovett  Stoffel.  Her  exquisite  Lewis  Carroll  in  Won- 
derland was  published  by  Discoveries  (KL  56,  p.  12);  she  is 
the  new  President-designate  of  our  Society  (to  be  formally 
elected  at  the  November  gathering);  and  now  Smithmark  Pub- 
lishers has  released  her  illuminating  essays  on  AW,  festooned 
with  hundreds  of  illustrations  from  the  famous  Lovett  collec- 
tion, including  toys,  games,  comic  books,  advertisments, 
sheet  music  and  so  on,  as  well  as  many  classic  (and  some 
fairly  unknown)  illustrators  of  the 
story.  The  graphic  design  is  rather 
"psychedelic"  and  quite  eye- 
catching, and  her  essays  cover  lin- 
guistics, the  spiritual  myth  of  the 
journey,  Victorian  times,  the  dark 
side  of  the  books,  questions  of 
identity  and  so  forth  in  an  im- 
mensely thoughtful  and  readable 
form.  I  believe  she  intended  both 
possible  readings  of  her  title. 

The  Best  Guidebook  Ever 


Lewis  Carroll's  England:  An  Il- 
lustrated Guide  for  the  Literary 
Tourist  by  LCSNA  President 
emeritus  Charlie  Lovett  is  an  utter 
delight  to  peruse,  as  well  as  ful- 
filling a  long-standing  need  for  the 
Carrollian  tourist  in  the  U.K. 
Dodgson  himself  was  of  course  a 
peripatetic  sort  of  fellow  and  this 
book  follows  his  life  more  or  less 
chronologically,  filled  with  photo- 
graphs (contemporary  and  historical)  and  etchings,  railway 
and  tourist  information,  and  a  wealth  of  biographical  significa 
and  minutiae  which  will  serve  brilliantly  as  a  guide  to 
Dodgson's  life  and  times.  Things  to  be  seen  include  his  con- 
scious and  unconscious  influences;  favorite  walks;  and  in- 
valuable information  such  as  where  to  get  the  key  when  the 
Daresbury  parish  church  is  locked;  the  slaying  of  the 
Sockburn  Worm  and  why  we  should  care;  and  where  to  find 
a  treacle  well.  Published  under  the  "White  Stone"  imprint  of 
the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  (U.K.),  it  can  be  ordered  for  U.S.$20 
(includes  postage  &  handling)  from  Sarah  Stanfield,  Acorns, 
Dargate,  Near  Faversham,  Kent,  ME1 3  9HG,  England. 

The  Cheshire  Cat  Looking-Glass 

Pages  6-7  of  the  Knight  Letter  #55  were  devoted  to  the  ex- 
quisite hand-printed  works  of  Joe  Brabant  and  George  Walker 
of  the  Cheshire  Cat  Press  in  Toronto,  and  it  was  announced 


"How  could  this  little  tale,  written  by  one 
particular  person  for  another  (a  religious 
and  intellectual  young  man  for  a  bright 
and  aristocratic  child)  at  a  very  definite 
place  and  time  (the  idiosyncratic  world 
of  mid- 19th-century  Oxford)  speak  so 
much  to  so  many  for  so  long?  As  with 
any  great  piece  of  literature,  the  answer 
is  both  simple  and  complex,  immediate 
and  endless.  Alice's  story  speaks  of 
essential  truths  about  the  human 
condition,  and  it  does  so  not  in  the  blunt 
language  of  sociology  or  psychology  but 
in  the  subtle  tongue  of  art,  leaving  loose 
ends,  dark  corners,  and  mysterious 
twilights  in  which  each  reader  sees  his  or 
her  own  personal  meaning." 

Stephanie  Stoffel,  The  Art  of  AW 


that  their  Through  the  Looking-Glass 
with  94  of  George's  wood  engravings 
"is  expected  next  year".  Well,  it  IS  next 
year  (the  happy  voices  cry)  and  cop- 
ies are  now  available  for  $400  (U.S.)  in 
3/4  leather  bound  handmade  paper  covered  boards  from: 
George  Walker,  73  Berkshire  Ave.,  Toronto,  Ontario  M4M 
2Z6,  Canada.  416.469.3711;  george_walker@tvo.org; 
www3.sympatico.ca/george.walker.  A  few  copies  of  Alice's 
Adventures  in  Wonderland  are  also  still  in  stock. 

Alice  in  Context 
The  Making  of  the  Alice  Books: 
Lewis  Carroll's  Uses  of  Earlier 
Children 's  Literature  by  Ronald 
Reichertz.  Montreal:  McGill- 
Queen's  University  Press,  1997. 
Reviewed  by  Jan  Susina 

Far  too  often  Carroll's 
A  W  has  been  seen  by  critics  of 
children's  literature  as  such  a  re- 
markable or  ground-breaking 
book  that  it  has  been  taken  out 
of  its  literary  or  cultural  context. 
Harvey  Darton,  in  Children's 
Books  in  England  (1932),  has 
compared  its  1 865  publication  to 
"a  spiritual  volcano"  in  children's 
literature.  Percy  Muir  neatly  di- 
vides English  children's  books 
into  two  categories:  "From  (John) 
Harris  to  Alice"  and  "After 
Carroll".  Muir  argues  that  there 
was  "no  comparable  giant  before 
or  after  it."  You've  heard  the  claim  countless  other  times.  It 
comes  down  to  Carroll  single-handedly  changing  the  face  of 
children's  literature  with  the  publication  of  the  Alice  books. 
Literary  history  is  never  quite  so  simple  or  as  clear- 
cut  as  it  appears  in  textbooks.  Writers  don't  go  to  bed  Ro- 
mantics and  wake  up  the  next  morning  Victorians.  Like  most 
things,  literary  history  is  messy.  Books  influence  books.  Unlike 
Athena,  Alice  did  not  emerge  fully  formed  from  Carroll's  head. 
It  doesn't  reduce  Carroll's  genius  in  the  least  to  acknowl- 
edge that  the  Alice  books  were  strongly  influenced  by  earlier 
children's  literature,  a  point  that  Reichertz'  book  makes  clear. 
Reichertz  argues  that  too  often  Carroll's  use  of  ear- 
lier children's  literature  in  developing  the  thematic  and  for- 
mal features  of  the  Alice  books  has  been  overlooked;  he 
does  acknowledge  that  Carroll's  parodies  of  earlier  works  b 
authors  such  as  Isaac  Watts,  Ann  and  Jane  Taylor,  and  R' 
ert  Southey  have  been  well  researched.  Reichertz  admif 


18 


he  is  following  the  lead  of  Roger  Lancelyn  Green's  introduc- 
tion to  the  Oxford  World  Classic  edition  of  the  Alice  books 
(1962)  in  seeking  the  sources  that  may  have  influenced 
Carroll.  However,  Reichertz  seems  to  undervalue  the  work  of 
Steven  Prickett's  Victorian  Fantasy  (1979)  and  Marguerite 
Mespoulet's  The  Creators  of  Wonderland  (1934),  although 
both  books  are  given  slight  mention.  Unfortunately,  Reichertz 
seems  unaware  of  the  significant  scholarship  found  in  Roger 
Lancelyn  Green's  Tellers  of  Tales  (1946),  Michael  C.  Kotzin's 
Dickens  and  the  Fairy  Tale  (1972),  John  Goldthwaite's  The 
Natural  History  of  Make-Believe  (1996),  or  Gillian  Avery's 
Nineteenth  Century  Children  (1965),  which  provide  a  liter- 
ary context  in  earlier  children's  literature  for  Carroll's  work. 

This  is  a  surprisingly  thin  book  on  such  a  rich  sub- 
ject. The  book  is  divided  into  two  major  sections:  Reichertz' 
75  pages  of  analysis,  and  a  subsequent  148  pages  of  appen- 
dices which  reprint  examples  of  children's  texts  that  are  pro- 
posed as  sources  or  analogues  for  the  Alice  books.  As  a 
result,  the  most  useful  aspect  of  the  text  is  the  reprinting  of 
the  original  children's  texts,  but  it  subsequently  makes  the 
volume  more  an  anthology  that  a  critical  study. 

Using  the  concept  of  "litterature"  which  Carroll 
coined  when  discussing  the  genesis  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno, 
Reichertz  shows  Carroll's  theory  of  composition  was  a  col- 
lection of  bits  and  pieces  of  litter,  or  those  "random  flashes 
of  thought"  traceable  "to  the  books  one  was  reading"  or  to 
"a  friend's  chance  remark".  Reichertz  focuses  on  three  genres 
of  children's  literature  that  Carroll  used:  the  "world  turned 
upside  down",  the  looking-glass  book,  and  the  "dream  vi- 
sion". He  also  shows  how  Carroll  frequently  reacts  against 
the  prevailing  didactic  literature  of  information,  an  observa- 
tion which  is  hardly  original. 

While  Reichertz  is  careful  to  argue  that  Carroll  was 
responding  to  genres  rather  than  specific  texts,  in  his  lengthy 
appendices  he  provides  examples  of  the  types  of  books  to 
which  Carroll  alluded.  William  Pinnock's  A  Catechism  of  Ge- 
ography (1822)  is  given  as  a  possible  source  that  inspired 
Alice's  distorted  geography  lesson  in  Wonderland.  Indeed, 
Pinnock's  text  does  include  a  chapter  titled  "Of  Latitude  and 
Longitude".  Ann  and  Jane  Taylor's  Signor  Topsy-Turvy's 
Wonderful  Magic  Lantern  (1810)  is  posited  as  a  source  of 
Carroll's  reversals.  Abraham  Chear's  A  Looking  Glass  for 
Children  (1673)  is  seen  as  the  possible  source  of  the  look- 
ing-glass book  which  is  structurally  important  to  TTLG. 
Reichertz'  chapter  on  the  tradition  of  the  looking-glass  book 
is  the  most  convincing  in  this  brief  study.  John  Bunyan's 
Pilgrim 's  Progress  ( 1 678)  and  Geoffrey  Chaucer's  The  Book 
of  the  Duchess  ( 1 369)  are  suggested  as  influential  in  Carroll's 
use  of  the  dream  vision  as  well  as  the  anonymous  The  Child's 
Dream  (1820). 

Reichertz'  most  original  claim  is  his  suggestion  that 
the  concluding  poem  of  TTLG  with  the  final  line,  "Life,  what 
is  it  but  a  dream?"  is,  if  one  removes  "what"  and  "it"  be- 
comes "Life  is  but  a  dream",  the  refrain  of  Elipthalet  Lyte's 
popular  "Row,  Row,  Row  Your  Boat"  (1 852).  If  Reichertz  is 
correct,  then  Carroll's  poem  cleverly  refers  to  the  origins  of 
the  creation  of  Wonderland  during  the  1 862  boat  trip  with  the 


Liddell  sisters.  The  round  structure  of  the  song  also  under- 
scores the  melancholy  assertion  that  life  is  little  more  than  a 
repeating  dream.  This  ingenious  explanation  does  not  take 
into  account  that  "Life,  what  is  it  but  a  dream?"  also  echoes 
Novalis'  epigram  "Our  life  is  no  dream;  but  it  ought  to  be- 
come one,  and  perhaps  will"  which  George  MacDonald, 
Carroll's  good  friend,  used  in  the  concluding  chapter  of 
Phantastes  (1858)  and  which  MacDonald  frequently  cited. 

While  Reichertz  does  a  fine  analysis  of  Carroll's 
Alice  books  in  relation  to  the  three  traditions  of  the  "upside 
down  world",  the  looking-glass  book,  and  the  dream  vision, 
what  is  noticeably  lacking  in  this  study  is  Carroll's  use  of  the 
literary  fairy  tale.  He  does  not  take  into  account  the  impor- 
tant influence  of  Charles  Kingsley's  The  Water-Babies  (1 863), 
George  MacDonald's  numerous  literary  fairy  tales  many  of 
which  first  appeared  in  Adela  Cathcart  (1 863),  and  Catherine 
Sinclair's  Holiday  House  ( 1 839)  with  its  well-known  interpo- 
lated fairy  tale  "Uncle  David's  Nonsensical  Story  about  Gi- 
ants and  Fairies"  as  well  as  the  lively  antics  of  Laura  and 
Harry  who  seem  to  be  prototypes  for  Alice.  It  is  worth  noting 
that  Carroll  gave  an  inscribed  copy  of  Holiday  House  to  the 
Liddell  children.  Given  that  Carroll  considered  AW  a.  literary 
fairy  tale,  it  seems  odd  not  to  deal  with  the  influence  of  previ- 
ous literary  fairy  tales  for  children.  Reichertz  has,  in  some 
ways,  missed  the  boat,  since  literary  fairy  tales  are  as  impor- 
tant to  the  making  of  the  Alice  books  as  the  three  genres  he 
examines.  Despite  its  shortcoming,  Reichertz  has  managed 
to  gather  together  in  one  volume  many  difficult-to-obtain 
children's  texts  that  were  influential  in  the  composition  of  the 
Alice  books  and  for  that  reason  this  collection  will  be  a  use- 
ful resource. 

A  Remembrance  of  Albert  C.  Berol 

Fan  Parker 

Most  often  when  the  LCSNA  meets  in  New  York 
City,  its  members  visit  the  Fales  Library  of  New  York  Univer- 
sity to  view  the  Berol  Collection  of  Lewis  Carroll.  To  enliven 
the  name  of  "Berol",  I  thought  that  information  outlining  his 
career  as  well  as  a  brief  sketch  on  my  meeting  with  this  cor- 
porate giant  and  assiduous  collector  might  be  of  interest. 

Upon  his  death  in  1 974,  the  New  York  Times  marked 
the  major  stages  of  his  life  in  an  obituary:  Berol  graduated 
cum  laude  from  Harvard  in  1 9 1 3 ;  in  World  War  I  he  served  as 
a  lieutenant  with  the  infantry  in  France;  upon  his  return  home 
he  received  training  in  international  finance,  and  then  joined 
the  Eagle  Pencil  Company,  founded  by  his  great-grandfather 
Daniel  Berolzheimer.  After  inheriting  the  company,  he  served 
successfully  as  its  president  and  chairman,  changing  its  name 
to  the  Berol  Corporation2  in  1969,  and  retired  in  1972.  Some- 
time in  the  midst  of  these  events  he  became  an  ardent  collec- 
tor, but  also  a  generous  one,  donating  letters  of  George  Wash- 
ington and  John  Jay  to  Columbia  and  a  letter  of  Galileo  to  the 
Harvard  Library.  He  sat  on  the  boards  of  several  university 
libraries,  and  received  an  honorary  Doctor  Of  Humanities 
from  Westminster  College  in  Salt  Lake  City. 

I  met  with  him  once,  on  November  1 5 , 1 973 ,  when  he 
was  eighty  and  already  a  sick  man,  but  one  who  even  then 


19 


exhibited  great  reverence  for  Carroll,  whom  he  deemed  a  "sin- 
gular writer".  He  also  expressed  pride  in  holding  the  very  rare 
first  Russian  translation  of  Alice. 

Eager  to  dip  into  the  1879  translation  of  AW,  I  had 
written  him  a  letter  identifying  myself  as  a  professor  of  Rus- 
sian and  requesting  an  opportunity  to  see  the  book.  To  my 
great  surprise  and  pleasure,  he  replied  "I  should  be  glad  to 
show  you  my  Russian  edition  of  AW,  which  is  the  only  one  I 
have  seen  and  know  of  no  other  in  the  Western  world.  It  is  in 
my  apartment  at  the  Hotel  Pierre.  If  you  will  let  me  know  when 
you  will  come  to  the  city  I  shall  try  to  arrange  a  date  with  you. 
I  look  forward  to  meeting  you." 

I  arrived  at  the  Hotel  Pierre  at  the  designated  time, 
but  to  my  distress  the  top  button  of  my  fashionable  camel- 
hair  cape  fell  off  somewhere  in  the  vestibule  and  there  was 
no  time  to  search  for  it.  A  youngish  French  lady  in  Berol's 
service  ushered  me  in  and  at  once  took  note  of  the  missing 
button.  I  explained. 

Mr.  Berol,  a  pleasant-looking  man,  walked  into  the 
room  supported  by  a  male  nurse  and  a  cane.  Here  was  a 
proud  man  who  wished  to  meet  his  guest  standing  up!  A 
most  welcomed  rapprochement  soon  ensued  and  before  long 
he  was  asking  me  to  follow  him  to  the  rooms  which  housed 
his  rare  books.  There  I  met  his  small,  trim,  and  beautiful  wife 
Madeleine.  The  nurse  helped  Mr.  Berol  to  a  sofa,  while  his 
wife  acted  on  his  behalf,  bending  and  stretching,  fetching 
books  from  one  room  or  another,  and  from  various  shelves  of 
the  glassed  bookcases. 

At  last  Ania  v  tsarstve  diva  ("Ania  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Wonder")  was  in  his  hands  and  shortly  he  turned  over  the 
precious  little  volume  to  me.  Gingerly  turning  the  pages  and 
taking  a  few  notes,  I  became  aware  that  time  and  circum- 
stances would  not  permit  a  careful  look.  I  ask  timidly  whether 
it  would  be  feasible  to  reproduce  the  whole  book.  I  assume 
that  most  collectors  would  have  categorically  denied  such  a 
request,  but  the  Berols  were  made  of  a  different  stock,  and 
evidently  it  was  habitual  for  them  to  pay  close  attention  to 
the  needs  of  others.  Much  hustle  and  bustle  followed.  All  of 
a  sudden,  some  new  faces  appeared  in  the  apartment.  The 
first  problem  to  be  solved  was  to  determine  which  of  their 
offices  had  a  reproducing  machine;  then  the  second  problem 
was  how  to  transport  it  to  Connecticut  where  one  turned  out 
to  be  available.  After  all  the  answers  seemed  to  have  been 
found,  Mr.  Berol  decided  to  forego  this  dangerous  venture 
since  he  lacked  trust  in  the  clerks  who  would  be  handling  it. 
I  fully  concurred,  as  too  much  was  at  stake.  (I  could  not 
foresee  that  some  time  later,  when  working  on  a  bibliography 
of  all  Russian  translations  of  Alice,  I  would  be  diligently 
examining  this  very  book  at  its  new  home  in  the  Fales  Li- 
brary.) 

A  late  luncheon  at  the  Hotel  Pierre  restaurant  fol- 
lowed. Mr.  Berol  became  overwhelmed  by  the  noisy  atmo- 
sphere and  wished  to  leave  as  soon  as  possible,  which  we 
did.  But,  Lo  and  Behold!,  when  the  French  woman  handed 
me  my  cape,  she  whispered  that  she  had  sewn  another  but- 
■>n  on,  one  very  closely  resembling  the  one  I  had  lost. 

My  impression  of  the  Berols  was  that  with  their 


wealth  was  entwined  an  earthiness,  charm,  generosity  of  spirit, 
and  lack  of  pomposity.  Perhaps,  on  our  subsequent  visits  to 
the  Fales  Library,  this  brief  remembrance  might  help  us  per- 
ceive Alfred  Berol  the  man,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the 
great  work  of  art  his  collection  of  Lewis  Carroll  immortalizes. 

The  Fales  Library  is  located  on  the  3rd  floor  of  the  Bobst  Library, 
70  Washington  Square  South.  Hours  are  M-Th  10-6,  Fridays  by  ap- 
pointment. It  is  normally  only  open  to  qualified  academic  researchers, 
by  pre-arrangement.  212.998.2596. 

2 

Now  a  multi-national  corporation,  its  primary  business  is  still  in 
writing  implements  for  office,  home,  graphic  design,  and  novelties. 


Speakers  at  the  coming  Fall  '98  gathering  in  Los 
Angeles  (November  6  -  7)  will  include  Daniel  Singer  on 
"Disney's  A#ce  in  Theme  Parks  &  Beyond"),  Michael 
Welch  and  Anashia  Plackis  with  looks  at  the  Russian 
Journeys  of  CLD  and  E.E.Cummings,  Charles  Lovett 
on  "Carroll's  Favorite  Play",  Mark  Burstein  on  "Comic 
Sensibilities",  Hilda  Bohem  on  the  1933  Parmount 
production,  and  a  Balinese  shadow-puppet  play. 
Other  meetings  are  being  planned  for  the  Baltimore  / 
Washington  area  (Spring  '99),  Toronto  (Fall  '99),  and 
New  York  (Spring '00). 


Illustration  credits 

Front  cover:  collage  based  on  "Ritter,  Tod  und  Teufel" 
("Knight,  Death  and  Devil")  by  Albrecht  Diirer  (1513). 

p.  7:  While  we  are  anxiously  awaiting  Eduardo  Stilman's  Span- 
ish translation  of  the  Alice  books  (with  the  Snark,  letters, 
etc.),  we  can  make  do  with  one  of  the  illustrations,  a  fine 
caricature  of  CLD  by  Hermenegildo  Sabat,  whose  works  of- 
ten appear  in  Clarin  (a  very  important  newspaper  in  Argen- 
tina). 

pp.  8-10:  cartoons  from  The  New  Yorker 


Serendipity 

I  was  trying  to  sleep  the  other  night  when  I  suddenly 
began  thinking  about  it  again.  I  realized,  lying  there, 
that  television  men  might  be  stimulated  by  this  essay 
to  brutalize  Peter  Pan,  Peter  Rabbit,  The  Wind  in  the 
Willows,  The  Crock  of  Gold,  and  also  to  do  violence 
to  some  of  the  inviolable  old  Alices  of  literature.  I 
thought,  I  regret  to  say,  and  probably  should  not 
report,  of  Alice  Threw  the  Looking  Glass  mdAlide- 
Spit-In-The-Fire,  and  then  got  up  and  had  a  stiff 
drink  and  a  cigarette  after  this  paraphrase  leaped 
into  my  naughty  mind:  "0  won't  you  dismember 
Sweet  Alice,  Ben  Bolt?" 

-  James  Thurber 

"Carpe  Noctem,  If  You  Can" 

Credos  and  Curios,  1949 


20 


The  "MythCon"  conference  in  Illinois  this  past  July  (seep.4)  was  attended  by  several  of  our  members,  including  ku 
Berman  of  Minneapolis,  who  composed  this  setting  of  the  "Mad  Gardener's  Song"  from  Sylvie  and  Bruno.  Illustrations 
are  the  original  ones  by  Harry  Furniss. 


The  Mad  Gardener1  s  Song 


Lewis  Carroll 


Ruth  Berman 


tjWfWJij}^ 


He  thought  he  saw  an  e-le-phant  that  prac-tised  on  a  fife:   He  looked  a-gain  and  found  it  was  a 


-b-> 


-*—  \-4 


i 


i 


=H 


£ 


ttflll'kM'JJWEp 


H    *    J 


let-ter  from  his  wife.   "At  length   I   re-a-lize,"   he  said,  "the  bit-ter-ness  of  life."   (The 


J* 0 P 


.1-8. 


»r\U  r]2h  ^Uj 


t 


^^ 


bit-ter-ness  of  life.)     (He)        -tin  -  gui  -  shes  all  hopel   Ex  -  tin  -  gui  -  shes  all  hope!) 


— — b-d- 


±4 


inr 


jjpg 


He  thought  he  saw  an  Elephant, 

That  practiced  on  a  fife: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

A  letter  from  his  wife. 
"At  length  I  realise,"  he  said, 

"The  bitterness  of  life!" 

He  thought  he  saw  a  Buffalo 

Upon  the  chimney-piece: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

His  Sister's  Husband's  Niece. 
"Unless  you  leave  this  house,"  he  said, 

"I'll  send  for  the  Police!" 

He  thought  he  saw  a  Rattlesnake 
That  questioned  him  in  Greek: 

He  looked  again  and  found  it  was 
The  Middle  of  Next  Week. 

"The  one  thing  I  regret,"  he  said, 
"Is  that  it  cannot  speak!" 


He  thought  he  saw  a  Banker's  Clerk 

Descending  from  the  bus: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

A  Hippopotamus: 
"If  this  should  stay  to  dine,"  he  said, 

"There  won't  be  much  for  us!" 

He  thought  he  saw  a  Kangaroo 

That  worked  a  coffee-mill: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

A  Vegetable-Pill. 
"Were  I  to  swallow  this,"  he  said, 

"I  should  be  very  ill!" 

He  thought  he  saw  a  Coach-and-Four 

That  stood  beside  his  bed: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

A  Bear  without  a  Head. 
"Poor  thing,"  he  said,  "poor  silly  thing! 

It's  waiting  to  be  fed!" 


He  thought  he  saw  an  Albatross 
That  fluttered  round  the  lamp: 

He  looked  again  and  found  it  was 
A  Penny-Postage-Stamp. 

"You'd  best  be  getting  home,"  he  said: 
"The  nights  are  very  damp!" 

He  thought  he  saw  a  Garden-Door 

That  opened  with  a  key: 
He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 

A  Double  Rule  of  Three: 
"And  all  its  mystery,"  he  said, 

"Is  clear  as  day  to  me!" 

He  thought  he  saw  an  Argument 
That  proved  he  was  the  Pope: 

He  looked  again,  and  found  it  was 
A  Bar  of  Mottled  Soap. 

"A  fact  so  dread,"  he  faintly  said, 
"Extinguishes  all  hope!" 


21 


From  Dor  r<u*-QC(U(9> 


Exhibitions 

Reflections  in  a  Looking  Glass:  A  Cen- 
tennial Celebration  of  Lewis  Carroll, 
Photographer,  an  exhibit  organized  by 
the  Harry  Ransom  Humanities  Research 
Center  at  the  University  of  Texas  at 
Austin  will  be  open  September  14th  - 
December  1 8th  and  then  travel  through- 
out the  U.S.  during  1 999-2000.  It  will  in- 
clude materials  from  the  Ransom 
Center's  Weaver  and  Sewell  bequests, 
as  well  as  the  Gernsheim  History  of  Pho- 
tography collection.  The  catalog,  with 
an  essay  and  extended  captions  by 
Morton  Cohen,  will  be  published  by 
Aperture  in  October.  (Aperture:  20  East 
23rd  St.,  New  York  NY  10010; 
212.505.5555x33 1 ;  www.aperture.com.) 
The  opening  reception  will  be  held  on 
Oct.  8,  with  guest  speaker  Morton 
Cohen;  a  Mad  Hatter's  Tea  Party  for 
children  on  Oct.  1 1  (5 12.47 1 .8944);  a  lec- 
ture by  curator  Roy  Flukinger  entitled 
"Packed  his  traps  and  'sloped  to  Texas'" 
on  October  22.  The  Center  can  be 
reached  at  PO  Box  7219,  Austin  TX 
78731-7219;  512.471.91 19or -2899  fax; 
contact  Richard  Oram  at  roram@ 
mail.utexas.edu. 

A  set  of  lovely  watercolor  &  ink  illus- 
trations to  the  Alice  books  by  Julia 
Eggeringhaus  was  featured  in  the  San 
Francisco  Academy  of  Art  College's 
Gallery  in  May  and  June.  She  can  be 
contacted  at  700  Taylor  St.  #603,  San 
Francisco  CA  94108. 

Alice  is  Wee,  a  conceptual  installation 
by  Tristan  Lowe  at  the  New  Langton 
Arts  in  San  Francisco  during  July  and 
August,  featured  a  2 1  -foot  blue  inflated 
Alice  with  one  eye,  a  hairy  Sasquatch 
being  sprayed  with  mugwort,  and  other 
things  "too  fierce  to  mention". 

Events 

The  Mad  Tea  and  Wonderland  Ball,  pre- 
sented by  the  Seattle  arts  group  The 
Cheshire  Society,  kicks  off  a  week-long 
tribute  to  the  Lewis  Carroll  centenary.  It 


Correspondents 


will  take  place  in  the  Oddfellows'  Hall 
on  October  4th,  1998  from  5  to  10  p.m. 
The  week  will  also  see  the  run  of  an  origi- 
nal stage-play  "Alice:  Through  the 
Looking-Glass,  Darkly".  Contact :  Mat- 
thew White,  The  Cheshire  Society,  4234 
Stone  Way  North  Seattle,  WA  98103; 
Cheshire-soc@geocities.com;  http:// 
www.geocities.com/broadway/alley/ 
6760 

The  1998  Founder's  Day  program  at 
Vassar  College  had  an  A  W theme. 

The  Caravan  Summer  Touring  Program 
of  the  University  of  New  Hampshire's 
Department  of  Theatre  &  Dance  has 
been  performing  "Blunderland:  where 
Alice  and  the  gang  return  to  save  Won- 
derland from  the  evil  Queen's  latest 
plot"  at  various  New  Hampshire  ven- 
ues in  August. 

Ballet  Fantastique's  AW,  Sunday  May 
17th,  1998  in  CarmeLCA. 

A  PTby  the  Little  General  Playhouse,  14- 
28  Feb. '99,  Atlanta  GA. 

Cyberspace 

"Alice  in  Wonderland  -  An  Interactive 
Adventure"  is  available  at  Ruthann 
Logsdon  Zaroff's  website  http:// 
www.ruthannzaroff.com/wonderland/ 

It  has  come  to  our  attention  that  several 
"Erotic  Toons"  websites  have  rather 
graphic  parodies  of  the  Disney  Alice 
characters  in  flagrante  delicto.  A  Czech 
one  is  at  http://home.onestop.net/ 
cartoonsx/alice.hrm.  Alice  is  portrayed 
as  being  of  a  more  proper  age,  but  please 
do  not  go  there  if  you  think  you  would 
be  offended. 

Send  an  Alice  postcard  to  a  cyber- 
friend:  http://www.just-so.com/cgi-bin/ 
select.cgi?page=0&col=/images/carroll 

An  animated  cursor  (for  Windows)  of 
Disney's  Cheshire  Cat  can  be  found  at: 
http://www.anicursor.com/cartoon.html 

22 


A  Tenniel-based  "Theme"  (animated 
cursors,  backgrounds,  etc.)  for  Win- 
dows95  is  available  at  http:// 
www.users.cts .  com/crash/h/hindskw/ 
themes.html. 

CD-ROMs 

KomTex  has  published  an  interactive 
CD,  "The  World  of  Alice",  which  draws 
on  multiple  Russian  translations  — 
Nabokov,  Zachoder  and  others  with 
both  new  animations  and  Tenniel.  It  won 
a  European  "CD-ROM  of  the  Year"  prize. 
Contact  Ms.  GalinaMinina,  B.  Tul'skaya 
52,  113191  Moscow,  Russia; 
comtech@ibrae.ac.ru;  +7.095.955.2620. 

Smart  Link  Corporation  offers  a  CD- 
ROM  for  Russian  speakers  to  learn  En- 
glish, based  on  A  W.  www.smarklinkcorp. 
com;  smrtlnk@smarklinkcorp.com;  4695 
MacArthur  Ct.  Ste  230,  Newport  Beach 
CA  92660. 

Periodicals 

Biblio:  Exploring  the  World  of  Books 
magazine  is  an  indispensable  reference 
and  a  joy  to  read  for  anyone  who  loves 
books.  Carrollians  would  note  that  then- 
June  '98  issue  covered  the  Windsor 
auction  by  Sotheby's :New  York,  and 
mentions  the  sale  of  1927  association 
copies  of  A  W&  TTLG  luxuriously  bound 
by  Riviere  and  inscribed  to  the  (future) 
Duke  of  Windsor  (Edward  VIII)  by  his 
father,  George  V  ($7,450  the  set).  The 
July  issue  discusses  the  sale  of  six  por- 
celain menu  cards  painted  by  Tenniel 
with  the  Alice  characters  selling  for 
$  14,405  at  Sotheby's:London.  Their  Sep- 
tember issue  reprints  an  1859  photo- 
graph of  Alice  by  CLD.  Subscriptions 
are  highly  recommended.  800.840.3810 
or  54 1 .345 .3  800;  P.O.Box  1 0603 ,  Eugene 
OR  97440;  www.bibliomag.com;  or  bet- 
ter newsstands  everywhere. 

The  July  27,  1998  issue  of  The  New 
Yorker  contains  a  moving  memorial 
about  the  novelist  Iris  Murdock  by  her 
husband  John  Bayley.  In  it  he  mentions 
that  AW  was  one  of  Iris's  favorite  books. 


The  July  issue  of  British  Airways'  in- 
flight magazine  High  Life  contains  an 
article  "England's  Wonderlands"  about 
Carroll  and  C.S.Lewis,  and  the  Sabena 
Airlines'  Passport  contained  "Curiouser 
and  curiouser..."  a  Carrollian  guide  to 
Oxford  and  environs. 

The  New  York  Times  seems  to  be  "re- 
joicing" in  Alice  these  past  few  months. 
A  long  article  "David  Del  Tredici:  A 
Composer  Caught  in  Alice's  Web"  by 
K.  Robert  Schwartz  appeared  on  24  May; 
a  review  of  the  "a.k.a.  Lewis  Carroll" 
show  at  the  Morgan  Library  entitled 
"Looking  Glass  Reflected  a  Shy  Victo- 
rian Don"  by  Grace  Glueck  appeared  on 
5  June;  "The  Man  Who  Turned  Sense 
Into  Charmed  Nonsense"  ("Connec- 
tions" by  Edward  Rothstein)  on  22  June 
and  "Through  the  Looking  Glass  of 
Modern  Music"  by  Verlyn  Klinkenborg, 
24  June,  were  also  inspired  by  the  Mor- 
gan Library  show;  and  "Lewis  Carroll 
Revisited:  In  a  Looking  Glass,  Darkly" 
by  Alan  Riding  (20  August)  reviews  the 
"LC:  Through  the  Viewfinder"  show  at 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery  in  London. 
Many  of  these  articles  were  syndicated. 

"Exact  Analysis  of  Dodgson  Elections: 
Lewis  Carroll's  1876  Voting  System  Is 
Complete  for  Parallel  Access  to  NP"  by 
Hemaspaandra  et  al.  in  the  Journal  of 
the  ACM,  Vol  44  No.  6,  November  1997. 

"Classifications  and  characterizations  of 
Snarks"  E.  Steffen.  Discrete  Mathemat- 
ics,  June  28, 1998,  v.  188,  no.  1/3.  "A  sur- 
vey of  Snarks  and  new  results,  products, 
reducibility  and  a  computer  search" 
Cavicchioli  et  al.,  Journal  of  Graph 
Theory,  June  1, 1998,  Vol.  28,  no.  2. 

Recently  discovered  in  medical  journals: 
"Neuronal  plasticity  and  aging  pro- 
cesses in  the  frame  of  the  'Red  Queen 
Theory'"  by  Agnati  et  al.;  Acta 
Physiologica  Scandinavica,  Vol.145  #4, 
August  1 992  and  "Lymphomania.  Non- 
Hodgkin's  lymphoma  as  possibly  viewed 
through  the  eyes  of  Lewis  Carroll"  by 
Glatstein,  Journal  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Medicine,  Vol.  80,  Feb. 1987. 
"Somesthetic  aura:  the  experience  of 
AW"  by  Kew  et  al.  in  The  Lancet,  Vol . 
35 1 ,  27  June  '98,  further  explores  the  "A  W 
syndrome"  of  perceived  body  size  dis- 
tortions due  to  mieraines.  "Reproduc- 


tion of  mimosa  and  clock  anomalies  be- 
fore earthquakes:  Are  they  'AW  Syn- 
drome'" by  Ikeya  et  al.,  Proceedings 
of  the  Japan  Academy ,  Vol.  74,  Ser.  B., 
No.  4  (1998),  discusses  the  phenom- 
ena of  clocks  stopping  or  rotating  rap- 
idly as  precursors  to  an  earthquake. 

Media 

Beware!  Beware!  Another  TV  movie  is 
in  the  works.  Not  having  learned  any- 
thing from  the  CBS  debacle  (Irwin 
Allen's  1985  miniseries),  resulting  in 
one  of  the  silliest  pieces  of  trash  ever 
to  invoke  Carroll's  name,  NBC  is  plan- 
ning a  three  hour  movie,  also  combin- 
ing the  stories.  It  is  being  produced  by 
Robert  Halmi,  the  executive  producer 
of  "Merlin",  and  will  star  comedian 
Martin  Short  and  actress  Miranda 
Richardson.  Keep  up  with  the  news  on 
http  ://w  ww.  nbc .  com/tvcentral/mms/ 
fr_index.html. 

Channel  4  TV  in  the  U.K.  is  producing 
Nick  Vivian's  take  on  A  W,  in  which  her 
mother  is  the  one  going  through  the 
Looking-Glass,  planned  for  airing  in 
December. 

It  is  quite  deplorable  that  we  must  note 
that  a  heinous  ring  of  paedophiles  which 
was  recently  busted  took  it  upon  them- 
selves to  name  their  organization  "the 
Wonderland  Club",  especially  as  it  al- 
lowed the  media  {Time,  14  September) 
[et  al.]  to  take  cheap,  totally  unfounded 
pot-shots  at  the  Reverend  Dodgson. 
Fortunately,  a  mass  coordinated  effort 
by  law  enforcement  officials  from  a 
dozen  countries  called  "Operation 
Cheshire  Cat"  (that  we  can  live  with), 
took  hundreds  of  these  vermin  into 
custody.  Anyone  finding  Internet  sites 
(or  any  other  form)  of  child  pornogra- 
phy should  immediately  inform  the 
U.S.Customs  hotline  at  1 .800. be- alert. 

On  29-30  August,  France-Culture,  FM 
Paris  93.5,  rebroadcast  a  1966  L  'Hotel 
des  Grands  Hommes  program  entitled 
"Lewis  Carroll,  maitre  d'ecole 
buissonniere" ,  a  7-hour  round-table 
discussion  with  Louis  Aragon,  Domi- 
nique Aury,  Andre  Bay,  Brassai',  Marcel 
Duchamp,  Marguerite  Duras,  Jean 
Gattegno,  Eugene  Ionesco,  Jacques 
Prevert,  Raymond  Queneau,  Philippe 


Sollers,  Philippe  Soupalt,  and  Ethel 
Hatch  (once  a  CLD  child-model,  and  the 
sister  of  Evelyn)  "elucidating  the  enigma 
that  was  Lewis  Carroll". 

Books 

An  essay  "Lewis  Carroll  in  the  Theatre" 
by  Robertson  Davies  appears  in  a  col- 
lection of  his  works  Happy  Alchemy: 
On  the  Pleasures  of  Music  and  the  The- 
atre. Viking  Press;  ISBN:  0670880191 

A  rather  horrible  (in  both  senses)  "Clas- 
sics Desecrated"  version  of^J^is  pre- 
sented in  an  "April  (Not)  Horrors"  comic 
book.  $3  from  Rip  Off  Press; 
www.ripofipress.com;  800.468.2669;  Box 
4686,  Auburn  CA  95604. 

Alice  in  Escherland calendars  from  QED 
Books,  Room  1 ,  Stonehills  House,  Wel- 
wyn  Garden  City,  AL8  6NH,  U.K.+44- 
1707.396.698;  qed@enterprise.net.  $5 
US  (1998),  $15  US  (1999)  incl.  postage. 

Martin  Gardner's  Visitors  from  Oz 
wherein  Dorothy,  Scarecrow,  et  al.  visit 
Wonderland,  and  Alice  visits  Oz  (see 
"Leaves"  in  KLs  56,57)  has  been  pub- 
lished by  St.Martins  Press.  $23  in  hard- 
cover, 03 121 9353X. 

Christopher  Ricks'  introduction  to  In- 
ventions of  the  March  Hare:  Poems 
1909-1917  by  T.S.Eliot  (Harvest: 
Harcourt  Brace,  1 998) — this  was  Eliot's 
original  title  for  his  notebook  —  dis- 
cusses LC's  influence  on  TSE. 

The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter,  with 
charming  water  color  illustrations  by 
Jane  Breskin  Zalben,  reissued  in  paper- 
back. $10  from  Boyds  Mills  Press,  815 
Church  St.,  Honesdale  PA  1843; 
800.490.5  111.  ISBN  1-56397-719-2. 

The  catalog  of  the  French  exhibition 
"Nail  /  Alice"  with  pencil  &  watercolor 
illustrations  (heavy  on  portraiture)  by 
Nail  is  available  ($25),  along  with  sev- 
eral etchings  ($800-2000)  and  original  art 
from  the  book  from  Beverly  Libby,  Gal- 
lery B,  Ltd.  75  Bennett  St.  D-2,  Atlanta 
GA  30309. 404.35 1 . 1 1 74;  -0554  fax. 

Academia 

The  Carpenter  Lectures  series  (May  1 8- 
2 1 )  in  the  Department  of  English  of  The 
University  of  Chicago  presented  Gillian 
Beer,  King  Edward  VII  Professor  of  En- 


23 


glish,  Cambridge  University,  on  "Alice 
in  Space:  The  Alice  books  in  the  con- 
text of  nineteenth  century  mathematics, 
language-theory,  photography,  parody 
and  ethnography  -  and  how  they 
wriggle  free";  also  "Alice's  Demon", 
"Rhyming  Alice",  and  "Alice's  Body". 

LCSNA  member  Michael  Dylan  Welch 
spoke  at  the  annual  American  Literature 
Association  conference  on  May  28, 
1998  in  San  Diego,  California.  His  topic, 
as  part  of  a  panel  sponsored  by  the 
E.E.Cummings  Society,  was  "Trains  to 
Moscow:  A  Comparison  of  Carroll's 
Russian  Journal  and  Cummings'  Eimf' 
(his  193 1  journal  of  a  trip  to  Communist 
Russia).  [Note:  The  policy  of  the 
E.E.Cummings  Society  and  his  publisher, 
Liveright,  is  to  use  the  usual  capital  ini- 
tials; the  common  belief  that  he  spelled 
his  name  with  all  lowercase  letters  is  a 
misconception.]  Michael  will  also  be 
giving  this  talk  at  our  Fall  meeting. 

The  Dickens  Project  of  the  University 
of  California  at  Santa  Cruz  incorporated 
CLD  into  its  "Dickens  Universe"  semi- 
nar, August  2-8,  and  featured  such  lec- 
ture topics  as  "Figuring  Images:  Meta- 
phor and  Metamorphosis  in  Carroll's 
Alice  Books  and  Film  Adaptations" 
(Kamilla  Elliott)  and  "The  Long  and 
Short  of  Oliver  and  Alice:  The  Chang- 
ing Size  of  the  Victorian  Child"  (Goldie 
Morgentaler). 

Art  and  Artifacts 

Stained  Glass  works  of  the  Tenniel  draw- 
ings by  Ruthann  Logsdon  Zaroff,  and  a 
book  of  designs  for  same,  are  available 
from  Mirkwood  Glass  Designs,  17725 
Savage  Road,  Belleville,  MI  48111; 
734.699.7206;  http://www.ruthannzaroff. 


com/Mirkwood.htm;Ruthann@Ruth 
arm  Zaroff.com 

A  fine  "gold-plated"  bookmark  of  the 
Cheshire  Cat  reading  a  book  also  sup- 
ports the  Reading  is  Fundamental  pro- 
gram. P.O.Box  23444,  Washington  DC 
20026.  A  solid  brass  bookmark  depict- 
ing the  characters  from  Stuart  Hough- 
ton, Ltd.,  The  Southend,  Ledbury, 
Heredfordshire  HR8  2E4  En- 
gland.44.(0).153 1.633333. -63 1555  fax. 

A  set  of  "scrap  reliefs"  (chromolitho- 
graphs -  embossed  stickers  for  decoup- 
age)  from  Mamelok  Press  Ltd,  Northern 
Way,  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  England  IP32 
6NJ.  +01284  762291  or  fax +01 284  703689. 


A  hand-painted  pewter  "Tea  Party  in 
Wonderland"  sculpture  ($395)  appears 
in  The  Disney  Catalog,  1 .800.237.575 1 , 
and  certainly  in  Disney  Stores  every- 
where. P.O.Box  29144,  Shawnee  Mis- 
sion, KS  66201-9144.  See  it  online  at 


http://www.disney-classics.com/ep_ 
mad_hat.html  where  it  lists  for  $475. 

Folk  artist  Barbara  A.  Kissinger  has  re- 
cently created  a  small  number  of  artist- 
signed  and  numbered  prints.  The  origi- 
nals were  produced  from  ink  and  acrylic 
drawings  and  include  the  ever-grinning 
"Cheshire  Cat"  and  one  illustrating 
eight  books  of  "special  meaning"  to  her, 
including  AW.  "Entitled  'The  Inner  Sanc- 
tum of  the  Book  Shelf,  much  attention 
was  given  to  detail.  You  can  almost  smell 
the  mustiness  of  the  browned  pages  in 
these  old  tattered  editions...  Standing 
on  the  shelf  outside  Carroll's  book  is 
the  waistcoated  White  Rabbit,  umbrella 
under  arm  and  pocketwatch  in  hand. . ." 
$15  from  Barbara  A.  Kissinger,  1630 
Smith  Street,  Burlington,  IA  5260 1 ;  3 1 9- 
752-0226,  e-mail  bakissinger  @lisco.net. 
http://burlingtonia.  min  ingco.com/li- 
brary/weekly/aa070698  .htm. 

Hand  and  Hammer  Silversmiths'  latest 
catalog  offers  an  Alice  charm  bracelet 
for  $108,  and  individual  charms  at  $16 
each.  1.800.SILVERY. 

Old  Glory  Distributing  offers  a  series  of 
Alice  T-shirts,  including  an  especially 
retro  tie-dye  model  with  the  caterpillar. 
Just  the  thing  for  the  nostalgia  buff,  re- 
bellious teenager,  or  unreconstructed 
hippie  in  the  house.  1 .860.399.5202. 

Royal  Doulton  Ceramics  has  things  of 
interest  in  their  "Giftware  &  Col- 
lectibles", namely  a  Lewis  Carroll  "char- 
acter jug",  and  Tweedledum/~dee  "char- 
acter condiments".  701  Cottontail  Lane, 
Somerset,  NJ  08873;  usa@royal- 
doulton.com;  732.356.7880  or  732.764. 
4974  fax;  http://www.royal-doulton.com/ 


For  help  in  preparing  this  issue  thanks  are  due  to:  Earl  Abbe,  Fran  Abeles,  Sandor  Burstein,  Llisa  Demetrios,  Joe  Desy, 
August  A.  Imholtz,  Robert  Alan  Frost,  Johanna  Hurwitz,  August  Imholtz,  Janet  Jurist,  Lucille  Posner,  Cindy  Watter, 
Claude  Weil,  and  Nancy  Willard. 

Knight  Letter  is  the  official  newsletter  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America.  It  is  published  several  times  a  year 
and  is  distributed  free  to  all  members.  Subscriptions,  business  correspondence,  and  inquiries  should  be  addressed  to 
the  Secretary,  18  Fitzharding  Place,  Owing  Mills  MD  21 1 17.  Annual  membership  dues  are  U.S.  $20  (regular)  and  $50 
(sustaining).  Submissions  and  editorial  correspondence  should  be  sent  to  the  Editor,  Box  2006,  Mill  Valley  CA  94942. 
President:  Joel  Birenbaum,  joel.birenbaum@lucent.com       Secretary:  Ellie  Luchinsky,  eluchin@erols.com 

Editor:  Mark  Burstein,  wrabbit@worldpassage.net 
Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America  Home  Page:  http://www.lewiscarroll.org/ 
The  Lewis  Carroll  Home  Page:  http://www.lewiscarroll.org/carroll.html 

24